SMUGGLER GUILTY IN ALBERTA'S LARGEST BUST

Customs Agent Found $9m Worth Of Cocaine

EDMONTON - Former nightclub owner Barry Werkman will learn next week how
long he will go to prison for his role in the largest scheme ever uncovered
in Alberta to import cocaine and export marijuana.

Werkman was convicted Friday in Court of Queen's Bench on charges of
conspiracy to import cocaine and export marijuana, and of importing cocaine.

His drug smuggling scheme unravelled on Jan. 15, 2004, when a drug
detection dog named Hershey led a suspicious customs agent at the Coutts
Canada-U.S. border to 69 kilograms of cocaine stashed between the floor and
subfloor of a tractor trailer.

It was the largest single cocaine seizure in Alberta, valued at $9 million
on the street at the time of the bust. In all, Werkman imported more than
$25 million worth of coke into Canada on three different trips.

After Justice Donna Read rendered her verdict Friday, Crown prosecutor
Dennis Hrabcak said he would seek a "significant sentence" at a sentencing
hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Each of the three trips started with a truck going to British Columbia,
picking up large shipments of marijuana, returning to Alberta and heading
south to the United States.

The excuse given at the border crossing for each trip was to pick up a car
in Las Vegas or Los Angeles -- which at different times were Cadillacs,
Buicks and even an XKE Jaguar -- and haul it across the border.

Two acquaintances of Werkman, Michael Hills and Wade Overacker, were
invited to earn money bringing cars back to Canada on different occasions.

Testimony from the two men showed they both became aware they were moving
more than just cars to earn their $3,500 per trip plus expenses.

During one of the trips, Overacker was instructed to remove the floorboards
of the trailer, take out bags of cocaine and bring them to Langley, B.C.,
when the trailer encountered axle problems on the Coquihalla highway after
returning from the United States.

On each trip into the United States, Werkman would meet the truck, load the
car into the trailer and then stay in the trailer for 10 or 15 minutes.

"Mr. Overacker was under no illusion that what they were doing was
transporting cars ...," Read said in her judgment. "Barry Werkman agreed to
have the cocaine taken across the border -- he put it in the hold."

Hills testified seeing a large amount of marijuana unloaded in Las Vegas
during one of his trips to the United States, and said Werkman discussed
exporting pot with him. During one trip, Hill said he was told there were
225 kilograms of the drug under the floorboards.

There was no proof found that drugs were exported to the United States, but
Read said there was enough proof to indicate there was an agreement to
export marijuana.

Read said the testimony suggested there were likely a number of other
people involved in the scheme in various locations. Names of other shadowy
characters were mentioned, such as "Mr. P." the Mexican in Los Angeles and
"English" in Langley. On one of the trips, the truck went as far as
Cleveland, Ohio.

Overacker, 31, was convicted last year on an importing charge and sentenced
to eight years. Hills, who was protected from charges based on the evidence
he gave through the Canada Evidence Act, has never been charged.