ALLEGED DRUG KINGPIN ORDERED EXTRADITED

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

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

U.S. authorities have alleged that 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 Justice Elizabeth
Bennett from being reported until now.

Cheema has already appealed Bennett's ruling to the Supreme Court of
Canada.

He argued unsuccessfully 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 rather "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 with him in Vancouver in April 1997 as a DEA
agent, which would have violated Canadian law.

But Bennett found the RCMP acted within the law and were not involved
in a "reverse sting." And she said 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 trafficking 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 of the gangland slayings of
brothers Jim and Ron Dosanjh.

Cheema was wounded by a 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, who was a freelance
agent working for many foreign police agencies, approached the RCMP
liaison in Lahore to inquire about whether "controlled deliveries of
narcotics were permitted from Pakistan to Canada."

In a controlled delivery, police allow a drug shipment to enter their
country so they can catch the traffickers in the act. Police sometimes
involve their own agent at the centre of the plot.

Khan told the RCMP officer about another retired Pakistani military
man named Major Mohamed Shafiq who had spoken to him about
transporting 50 kilograms of heroin to Vancouver.

The RCMP officer in Lahore asked his superiors back home if they
wanted to work with Khan. He was told the Pakistani agent would have
to identify a buyer in Canada in order for the RCMP to get involved.

Khan identified a Mr. Bajwa as his potential Canadian purchaser. Khan
later travelled to Vancouver and met with members of the RCMP's drug
section, who decided he had credibility problems. They were also
worried they could not guarantee his safety because he had already
been identified as an agent in Pakistan, leading to a shooting that
wounded his wife.

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 with Khan.

Cheema allegedly told Khan that he was in the process of importing 100
kilograms of heroin and 4,000 kilograms of hash from Pakistan and
wanted Khan's help with the shipment.

The different positions of the drug squads in Vancouver and Montreal
led to a turf war, Bennett was told.

In January 1997, a Montreal RCMP officer went to Pakistan to meet
Khan, who later met with Shafiq, Bajwa and a third man in Singapore.
Cheema could not attend the meeting because police in Canada had
seized his passport.

That same month, an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling about police stings
led to an RCMP directive against any such operations.

Montreal RCMP were forced to opt out of the controlled delivery
involving Khan, even though they had concerns about his safety.

Khan told Shafiq that he was ill and wouldn't be able to attend some
meetings about the drug deal. But several tribesmen from the northern
regions of Pakistan, who were to supply the drugs, visited Khan and
told him that his life and theirs would be in danger unless he
followed through with the plan.

They told Khan he would have to travel to Vancouver to talk to Cheema
about a new destination for the shipment. "This is the only way to
save yourself and save us," the tribesmen told Khan.

In mid-March 1997, Khan spoke to his RCMP liaison in Pakistan and
suggested that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency be passed the
investigation.

Khan said he was aware that Cheema "obtained his cocaine supply from
an organization in Los Angeles."

A few days later, the RCMP officer in Pakistan took Khan to the DEA
and left him with two American agents.

Khan travelled to Vancouver in April to meet Cheema, but said the
meeting was only to explain why he was no longer able to work with the
Vancouver destination.

Now working as a DEA agent, Khan continued to have contact with Cheema
and others about the heroin shipment, which was set to go to L.A. By
October 1997, some of the heroin was en route to the United States.
Khan told Shafiq that he was expecting Cheema to pay $4 million US
"upon delivery of the heroin in Los Angeles."

Khan said Cheema was supposed to meet himself and Shafiq in Singapore
in early November, but instead sent some associates. The meeting was
secretly monitored by the DEA.

On Nov. 15, 1997, Khan received three suitcases packed with 106
kilograms of heroin from Shafiq at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Karachi,
Pakistan.

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 with several of Cheema's associates who remained in the L.A.
area to finalize the deal.

"Between January 18 and 21, Khan, Cheema and Shafiq had telephone
discussions regarding delivery of the heroin," Bennett's ruling summarized.

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
room at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel and gave Khan the duffel bag
containing almost half a million U.S. dollars. American authorities
have alleged the cash was an instalment payment on an agreed price of
$6.5 million for the drugs.

The group of 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 then drove off and were arrested
shortly afterward.

All three, David Karan Nair and Yadvinder Singh Kallu, both of
Richmond, and Mandeep Dosanjh, of Surrey, pleaded guilty and were
sentenced to nine years in jail.

Cheema was arrested by the RCMP in Vancouver the same day. He remains
free on $1 million bail pending the outcome of his Supreme Court of
Canada challenge.