SENIORS, KIDS MOVED DRUGS

Joint RCMP-DEA Effort Smashes Ring That Brought Ecstasy Tablets Across Border

A smuggling ring that used minors and senior citizens as drug mules
to ferry large quantities of methamphetamine-laced ecstasy tablets
from Toronto via the Windsor-Detroit tunnel into Michigan was busted
up by police in a series of raids this week on both sides of the border.

Members of the RCMP drug section in Windsor executed search warrants
at two residences in Windsor and Tecumseh Wednesday and arrested 10
people. An additional arrest was made Thursday morning, bringing to
13 the number of locals among 25 individuals charged as a result of a
six-month joint investigation led by the RCMP and the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration and including the Canada Border Services
Agency and the Sterling Heights police department. Two of the
Canadians charged, brothers [Name redacted]
and [Name redacted]
, are in jail in Windsor and Ohio, respectively, for unrelated offences.

Law enforcement officials seized about 55,000 ecstasy tablets with an
estimated street value of more than $1 million.

Const. Annette Bernardon of the Windsor RCMP said the drugs
originated in Toronto, with Windsor-area individuals holding the
shipments until arrangements could be made to hire couriers to
transfer them across the border.

"Every case is important, but this case was especially important --
it showed the co-operation between the RCMP and the DEA," said
Special Agent Carolyn Gibson of the DEA's Detroit field office.

"The message to the drug dealers ... is that there are no borders
(when it comes to) ridding our streets of these drugs," she said.

Among those facing conspiracy and trafficking charges are [Name
redacted] , 51, his wife [Name redacted] , 44, and their sons [Name
redacted] , 29, [Name redacted] , 24, and [Name redacted] , 21.

During the period covered by the police investigation, which relied
heavily on electronically intercepted telephone conversations, [Name redacted]

was incarcerated at Windsor Jail pending his sentencing on unrelated
drugs and weapons smuggling charges.

"I was aware of the ongoing investigation involving Mr. Odish during
his sentencing hearing," said federal Crown attorney Richard Pollock.

Other local residents facing a raft of drug conspiracy, trafficking
and export charges are: [Name redacted] , 19,[Name redacted] , 21,
[Name redacted] , 19, [Name redacted] , 30, [Name redacted] , 22,
[Name redacted] , 19, [Name redacted] , 21, and [Name redacted] , 18,
all of Windsor.

[Name redacted] is also charged with conspiracy to traffic in
firearms and trafficking in marijuana, while he and his brother [Name
redacted] are among several additionally charged with uttering threats.

Three men from the Toronto area and nine Metro Detroit residents are
also charged.

In one transaction, described in a criminal complaint sworn by a DEA
agent in U.S. District Court, a Michigan-based drug trafficker placed
an order for 20,000 ecstasy tablets with her Toronto supplier who had
it brought to Windsor July 14 by a courier on a train.

The next day, RCMP surveillance officers observed the Canadian mule
enter a room at the ABC Motel and two males subsequently exit the
room and get into a Michigan-plated vehicle previously observed by
the drug squad.

A subsequent search by U.S. border patrol officers at the tunnel
revealed more than 19,000 ecstasy tablets duct-taped to the legs of
the two suspects.

The agent's court affidavit details other similar alleged
transactions arranged by phone and overheard by RCMP officers,
including a meeting by two Detroit men in their 60s with associates
of [Name redacted] and [Name redacted] at Casino Windsor on July 28
that subsequently led to their arrests at the tunnel and the seizure
of more than 15,000 ecstasy tablets.

The mules drove their own vehicles and were allegedly offered up to
US$1,000 per person for each trip, but in one documented instance a
female minor, driving her dad's vehicle, was paid US$200 in advance.

According to the affidavit, she met [Name redacted] through a friend
and the Windsor man helped tape the tablets to her body at his home
after convincing her to smuggle the ecstasy.

Those arrested locally appeared in court Thursday to be formally arraigned.

Bernardon said those arrested were not connected to bikers or other
gangs but represented "a criminal organization working on its own."