DRUG SMUGGLING SUSPECT 'PROMISED FAMILY HE'D GO STRAIGHT'

Now Langley man sits in Spanish prison after arrest

Michael Medjuck of Langley promised everyone, including his kids, that
he was done with drug smuggling and crime after 13 years in jail.

But Medjuck, who was busted in 1991 for his role in smuggling 64
tonnes of hash, is now languishing in a Spanish jail accused of trying
to smuggle 1,000 kilograms of cocaine into the country.

A five-month investigation by Canadian, U.S. and Spanish police
wrapped up with the Oct. 6 arrest near Barcelona of Medjuck, Allen Jay
Gordon of Halifax and Paul Denis Richard of Laval. The fourth man's
identity is not yet known; police believe he gave a false name.

For Bruce Medjuck, 59, the news of his younger brother's arrest was a
crushing blow.

"I was reassured repeatedly by him that he was not involved in
anything underhanded or unlawful," said Medjuck. "He was very
convincing to his family that his intention was to go straight and try
and re-establish contact with his children."

Michael Medjuck was released from jail in the U.S. last August after
serving 13 years of a 24-year sentence for the hash caper in 1991.

Medjuck, who once co-owned Cafe Django in the West End, returned to
Langley to be close to his family and two children.

"He came out [of jail] with a very positive attitude," Bruce Medjuck
said.

"We were all just very hopeful that things would work out, that he had
learned his lesson. Everyone was unequivocally in his corner to
support him."

The family took Michael Medjuck in and tried to keep him from sliding
back into criminality. It's those efforts and Medjuck's assurances
that make the arrest so difficult to bear, his brother said.

The brothers had hoped to celebrate their mother's birthday in
January. Now, the elderly woman is trying to come to terms with the
fact she may not see her son again.

"She's obviously devastated by it," Medjuck said. "His children are
devastated because everybody trusted what he was saying."

He said his brother told those near him he was going to Europe on
holiday before his arrest.

Medjuck apparently told his Spanish lawyer he was simply in the wrong
place at the wrong time. His lawyer says he's innocent.

Insp. Paul Nadeau of the RCMP's Greater Vancouver drug section said
they suspect Medjuck was "well placed" in an international criminal
organization.

More and more, Nadeau said, police are seeing international gangs
following a corporate model, with some in charge of procuring, others
smuggling, others distributing. They are not organized on traditional
ethnic lines.

"These are global gangs that are sort of like the United Nations," he
said. "It's because they need to operate in different countries to
acquire drugs and distribute them. They integrate just like we're doing."

The arrests may be related to the arrests of two North Vancouver men
in July, Nadeau said.

John Carter Hanson and his son-in-law Blake Becher were arrested on
their 22-metre yacht in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with about
1,300 kilos of cocaine, believed to be from Venezuela and bound for
Spain.

Nadeau said there were so many packages of cocaine aboard the Cantamar
IV that a secret compartment was filled to overflowing and bricks of
the drug were in plain view.