'MONEY MAN' PLEADS GUILTY TO LAUNDERING $200M IN DRUG FUNDS

Vancouver-Based Frank Tran Handled Currency For Latino And Asian
Crime Groups. It Was Called One Of The Largest Money-Laundering
Operations In Canadian History.

The Vancouver "money man" for a various organized crime groups has
admitted to laundering $200 million in drug money over a two-year
period.

"It is one of the largest money-laundering operations in Canadian
history," federal prosecutor Ernie Froess said in court about the
activities of Dat Dac Tien (Frank) Tran, who ran a Vancouver currency
exchange.

Tran, 38, has pleaded guilty to laundering $200 million in cocaine
money between Jan. 1, 2001 and Jan. 23, 2003. He also pleaded guilty
to one count of cocaine trafficking on Aug. 12, 2002.

Tran faces a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison when he is
sentenced May 19 at the Vancouver Law Courts by B.C. Supreme Court
Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm.

"Tran was the money man for an organized crime group selling multi-
kilos of cocaine," Cpl. Dave Kwasnica of the combined forces special
enforcement unit (CFSEU) explained Friday. Tran laundered money for
Latino and Asian organized crime groups, he added.

One of the targets of the organized crime investigation was Tho Ahn
Khuc, who sold multi-kilogram shipments of cocaine from his Vancouver
home and had them delivered "like pizzas," said Kwasnica, the lead
investigator.

Khuc employed Van Doan Ha and Nhi Mui Chiem as drug couriers. They
also guarded a rented stash house at 203 - 3489 Kingsway.

Khuc will be sentenced June 30 for conspiracy to traffic cocaine. Ha
and Chiem also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced May 11.

The drug investigation, code-named Project Blizzard, was originally
started in 2001 by the Organized Crime Agency of B.C., which has
since been replaced by CFSEU.

A separate investigation by the RCMP integrated proceeds of crime
unit, code-named Project Exchange Rate, targeted the money-laundering
activities of Tran, who was exchanging up to $300,000 Cdn for U.S.
funds a day.

The two investigations eventually merged when police realized they
involved the same targets.

The cocaine was smuggled by backpack from Washington state through
orchards at Osoyoos by a group headed by a Mexican national,
Adalberto Silva Rivas, who lived in the small town of Schawana, near
Spokane, Wash. Silva Rivas' main source of cocaine was a Mexican-
based supplier known only as "Chavo."

Several backpacking drug couriers, each carrying about 16 kilograms
of cocaine, would meet in the night at a rest stop on Anarchist
Mountain, which overlooks Osoyoos, where they would be picked up by
Jose Donaldo Lopez Guzman, who would drive them to his Burnaby home
at 7380 Burris St.

Lopez Guzman also purchased a large amount of cocaine that he
distributed in the Toronto area. At the conclusion of the
investigation, Guzman was arrested on the Pattullo Bridge in a
vehicle containing 12 kilograms of cocaine. The purity ranged from 80
per cent to 92 per cent.

Lopez Guzman was sentenced in Vancouver last year to 12 years in
prison for conspiracy to traffic cocaine. Silva-Rivas, who was
arrested in Canada but was voluntarily deported to the U.S., also
received a 12-year sentence in Washington state for conspiracy to
import and traffic more than five kilograms of cocaine.

The dealer first came to the attention of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, which rounded up about 20 people in the U.S. for
cocaine trafficking. Most were of Mexican descent, although Tran's
sister, Thanh Thi Tuyen Tran of Seattle, was also arrested and
charged with money laundering.

A conservative estimate of the amount of cocaine Silva Rivas imported
into Canada over a two-year period was 200 kilograms. Conversations
captured by a police wiretap operation showed the purchase price was
about $19,000 US a kilogram. Coded conversation referred to cocaine
as beer and the stash house as the "superstore."

The Vancouver investigation also resulted in the Dec. 12, 2002
seizure of almost $800,000 cash from the trunk of a Porsche driven by
Piotr Robert Sperka of Vancouver. At the time, he was a trader at
Wolverton Securities Ltd. in Vancouver. He no longer works for the
company.

Police alleged that Sperka received a cash commission for converting
U.S. funds into Canadian currency. The Crown will seek forfeiture of
the seized cash at a hearing in September.