POLICE BUST CROSS-BORDER DRUG RING

Group smuggled meth, pot into U.S., coke into Canada

Cross-border shopping just got tougher for those who deal in drugs.

The RCMP and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration yesterday unveiled a
room full of drugs and cash they seized in a crackdown on an elaborate
drug-smuggling operation.

"Literally hundreds of police officers were involved on both sides of the
border," said Sgt. Dave Goodard of the RCMP drug-enforcement branch, looking
over $500,000 in cash and more than a dozen large containers filled with
marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and ephedrine.

"This is a cyclical pattern," he said. "They would export marijuana,
methamphetamine and ephedrine to the U.S., sell it and use the proceeds to
purchase cocaine and import it into Canada."

In 10 separate seizures, police confiscated 52 kilos of cocaine, 50 kilos of
ephedrine, 20 kilos of methamphetamine, 1,260 kilos of marijuana and more
than $900,000 in cash.

Police have charged eight men in B.C., Alberta and Ontario.

"We have made it more difficult for drug smugglers," said Kenneth Peterson,
head of the U.S. DEA's office in Vancouver, which opened in June 2003.

"The only thing that limits a smuggler is imagination," he added. "They have
become more innovative, but so have police forces.

"We have new technology, more people and more resources since 9/11.

"In the future, we intend to make it even more difficult."

The 10 busts, from last March to this month, occurred in Vancouver, Mission,
Richmond, Chilliwack, Calgary, Toronto, Los Angeles, Cochrane, Alta., and
Bakersfield, Calif.

Three Burnaby men -- Robert Nicky Della Penna, Franco Roberto Muoio and
Robert Poloni -- face charges of trafficking in a controlled substance and
conspiracy to traffic in a controlled substance.

Three Alberta men and two Ontario men also face drug charges.

Crown counsel will decide what charges to lay against 56 harvesters arrested
at two massive marijuana grow-ops in Mission as part of the year-long
investigation.