ALLEGED GLOBAL DRUG KINGPIN ORDERED EXTRADITED TO U.S.

Judgment Reads Like Plot Of An International Spy Novel

VANCOUVER -- The alleged kingpin of an international drug-trafficking ring
has been ordered extradited to the U.S. from Canada more than six years
after charges were first laid against him in California.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled in June that Ranjit Singh Cheema should be
extradited on U.S. charges that he conspired to import 200 kilograms of
heroin, and 4,000 kilograms of hash from Pakistan.

U.S. authorities have alleged Cheema headed the drug ring's Canadian arm
and negotiated with Colombian drug dealers to exchange the heroin for 800
kilograms of cocaine. A publication ban, lifted Friday after an application
by The Vancouver Sun, prevented details of the extradition ruling by Madame
Justice Elizabeth Bennett from being reported until now.

Cheema has already appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada. He
unsuccessfully argued during his extradition hearing last year that the
RCMP had used an illegal "reverse sting" to implicate him in an
international drug case involving Pakistan, Canada and the U.S. And Cheema
said the RCMP did not disband the sting when ordered to by headquarters,
but "transferred the fruits of their illegal activity" to the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency.

Cheema also suggested a shadowy former Pakistani military man named
Mohammed Yusuf Khan met him in Vancouver in April 1997 as a DEA agent,
which would have violated Canadian law.

But the judge found that the RCMP acted within the law and were not
involved in a "reverse sting." She said that Khan came to Vancouver in
April 1997 at the RCMP's request simply to explain to Cheema why he could
no longer be involved in the drug deal.

Khan may have been a DEA informant at the time, Bennett said, but he was
not acting as an agent. Bennett also ruled that two other co-accused, Troy
Lorenz and Narayan Saliendra, should not be extradited because there was
insufficient evidence of their involvement in the alleged plot.

Cheema's name has arisen in high-profile Indo-Canadian gang cases for more
than a decade. He was identified as an alleged cocaine trafficker in the
1995 trial of six men accused in the gangland slayings of brothers Jim and
Ron Dosanjh. Cheema was wounded by gunshot at a Richmond nightclub in 1995.
He was with his associate at the time, Robbie Kandola, who was gunned down
in June 2001 after a falling-out with Cheema. Cheema was with his
bodyguard, Mike Brar, when Brar was fatally shot outside a Vancouver
wedding reception in May 2000.

The facts of the U.S. case against Cheema, as summarized in Bennett's
66-page ruling, read like an international spy novel. According to the
decision, in April 1996, Khan, a freelance agent working for foreign police
agencies, approached the RCMP liaison in Lahore to ask whether "controlled
deliveries of narcotics were permitted from Pakistan to Canada."

A controlled delivery is when police allow a drug shipment to enter their
country so they can catch the traffickers in the act. Khan told the RCMP
officer about another retired Pakistani military man named Maj. Mohamed
Shafiq who had spoken to him about transporting 50 kilograms of heroin to
Vancouver. The RCMP officer in Lahore asked his superiors if they wanted to
work with Khan. He was told the Pakistani agent would have to identify a
buyer in Canada.

Khan identified a Mr. Bajwa as his potential Canadian purchaser. Khan later
travelled to Vancouver and met with police in the RCMP's drug section who
decided he had credibility problems. They were also worried they could not
guarantee his safety.

But Khan was also talking to the RCMP's Montreal drug squad, who decided to
work with the Pakistani. Bajwa flew to Montreal with Ranjit Cheema to meet
Khan. Cheema allegedly told Khan he was in the process of importing 100
kilograms of heroin and 4,000 kilograms of hash from Pakistan and wanted
Khan's help.

On Nov. 15, 1997, Khan received three suitcases packed with 106 kilograms
of heroin from Shafiq at a hotel in Karachi. Khan was supposed to meet
Cheema in L.A. the following month. Cheema again sent associates for the
Dec. 21 meeting. Throughout late December and January, Khan talked to
Cheema by phone and met several of Cheema's associates who remained in the
L.A. area to finalize the deal.

Khan told Cheema the shipment would be in two parts -- the first of 106
kilograms, followed by the second of 100 kilograms. On Jan. 27, 1997, two
of Cheema's alleged associates arrived at Khan's hotel room and gave Khan
the bag containing almost half a million US dollars. American authorities
have alleged the cash was an installment payment on an agreed price of $6.5
million for the drugs.

The men went to the hotel parking lot, where DEA agents had placed five
boxes containing 104 kilograms of fake heroin and two of the real stuff.
The three B.C. men drove off and were arrested shortly afterwards.