FORMER BOXER HEADS DRUG RING

RCMP: Police claim Rob Dellapenna runs a cross-border trafficking
organization

Former middleweight boxer Rob Dellapenna of Burnaby is the leader of a
sophisticated organized crime ring involved in the cross-border trade of
cocaine and marijuana, RCMP said Wednesday.

Dellapenna, who turns 34 next week and had varying degrees of success in his
boxing career from 1993 to 2001, was one of three B.C. men arrested and
charged with trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in a controlled
substance.

His was one of numerous arrests made simultaneously in B.C., Alberta and
California in the U.S. Oct. 14 when a year-long, multi-agency police
investigation ended, resulting in the seizure of huge quantities in
marijuana, cocaine and other narcotics in the two countries.

The sophisticated drug operation, police said, involved the use of drug
couriers who attempted twice in June 2004 to carry cocaine stuffed in a
suitcase on a plane from Vancouver to Toronto. The first attempt ended at
Vancouver International Airport when a suitcase containing 10 kilograms of
cocaine was seized by police but the second, on June 29, could have
succeeded had it not been for a Toronto police dog which sniffed out a
suspicious piece of unclaimed luggage that was found to contain eight
kilograms of cocaine.

A rental vehicle was also used three months later to try to courier cocaine
from Chilliwack to Toronto.

Police went undercover to arrest a suspect in Richmond Oct 14, using an
operator posing as a drug dealer from whom the suspect attempted to buy
cocaine. "In exchange for just 25 kilograms of cocaine, the suspect gave the
undercover operator $575,920 [in cash]," Sgt. Dave Goddard, of the Greater
Vancouver Drug Section, told reporters Wednesday.

The cash, along with 18 crates containing 49 kilograms of marijuana and 30
kilograms of cocaine, were shown to the media at Wednesday's news conference
at RCMP headquarters in Vancouver.

Goddard said that while there was no way of telling how long the suspects
had been operating, police believed that Dellapenna was "the head of this
organization."

It has not yet established how the cocaine was transported from the U.S.
into Canada.

"We claim this to be organized crime because there is a hierarchy involved.
You've got somebody such as Mr. Dellapenna at the top and you've got the
minions that have been working for him in the various grow operations. There
is a hierachy in which the drugs -- methamphetamine, ephedrine and marijuana
- -- are produced up here in Canada, then they go down to the States where
they are sold and the profits from those drug sales are re-invested in
cocaine in the United States," Goddard said in an interview with The
Vancouver Sun.

That cocaine, he said, ended up in Canada and was distributed in Vancouver,
Calgary and Toronto.

"It feeds into our community and the profits from those sales only serves to
feed further [marijuana] grow operations and further narcotics that creates
this cyclical arrangement."

Dellapenna, together with Franco Roberto Muoio and Robert Poloni, also of
Burnaby, appeared in Vancouver provincial court Wednesday. All except Muoio
were remanded until Friday.

The police investigation also led to the arrest of three Alberta men, Todd
Holland, Robert Friedaman and Kenneth Douglas, while arrest warrants have
been issued for James Micklewright and Jason Horner of the Greater Toronto
area. In addition, 56 harvesters were arrested when police uncovered two
marijuana growing operations in Mission in March and August this year.
Sixteen were involved in both operations, police said.

In total, police seized 38 kilograms of cocaine, more than 550 kilograms of
marijuana and more than $600,000 in cash in B.C. Smaller amounts of cocaine
were also seized in Alberta, along with 20 kilograms of methamphetamine and
50 kilograms of ephedrine.

In California, 12 kilograms of cocaine, 11 kilograms of marijuana and
$272,000 in U.S. currency were seized.

The police operation was a combined effort of the RCMP, The U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration, Alberta's Integrated Response to Organized Crime
Unit and the California Inland Crackdown Allied Task Force.

Kenneth Peterson, of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in
Vancouver, which was opened in June 2003, told The Sun that Canada is a
major trans-shipment point of certain drugs coming from outside North
America like ecstacy, methamphetamine and marijuana. "A lot goes to the
United States. In turn, we know that a lot of drugs come from the United
States, particularly cocaine. There is a significant drug problem both sides
of the border," Peterson said.

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VANCOUVER: A HUB FOR ILLICIT CARGO

Marijuana operations used local residents to harvest and package pot for
U.S. export. Cocaine was routed to elsewhere in the country.

Map shows movements of illicit drugs and seizures announced Wednesday:

NORTHBOUND: Cocaine

Vancouver

38 kg cocaine

1,778 lbs. harvested pot

964 lbs. wet pot

$600,000+ cash

Alberta

2 kilograms cocaine

43 lbs. methamphetamine

110 lbs. ephedrine

Toronto

Cocaine carriers bound from Vancouver to Toronto by plane and car were
intercepted on multiple occasions.

SOUTHBOUND:

Marijuana

Methamphetamine

Ephedrine

Los Angeles

12 kg cocaine; 25 lbs. marijuana; $272,000 US cash