MOUNTIES STING WEST END GANG

22.5 Tonnes Of Dope Change Hands Off Angola's Coast - Under The
Watchful Eye Of Police Video Cameras

Royal Canadian Mounted Police, $225 million. West End Gang, 0.

The RCMP announced yesterday they had fleeced the organized crime
group of almost $250 million in illegal narcotics.

In a sting operation that could have been taken from a movie script,
the Mounties tricked an import cell of the West End Gang into handing
over 22.5 tonnes of hashish on May 10, about 325 kilometres off the
coast of Angola.

The drug ship had left Pakistan loaded with 989 bales of hashish. The
drug was packed in small metallic envelopes labelled as coffee packets.

The contraband was later loaded onto a ship rented for the occasion
by the RCMP - after the West End Gang had unwittingly hired
undercover officers to act as middlemen in the transaction.

The Mounties secretly videotaped the crew of the first ship as they
transferred the drugs to the second vessel, which was operated by
RCMP officers.

The Mounties transported the drugs to Canada and delivered them on
Friday to a home in St. Jean sur Richelieu believed to be a
distribution centre. They then arrested the alleged ringleaders in
the importation scheme.