DRUG BUST NABS 24 ON BOTH SIDES OF BORDER

9 Arrested In Windsor Area

Nine people from the Windsor area have been charged in connection with an
international drug smuggling scheme that used Windsor as a key "staging
point" and saw marijuana carried across the border in garbage trucks.

The men and women from Windsor were among 24 people charged in Canada and
the U.S. Monday with 157 drug-related and proceeds-of-crime offences.

The busts, the result of a year-long Canada-U.S. investigation into a
Toronto-area organized crime syndicate, netted $5 million US in drug
proceeds, 1,700 pounds of marijuana and 3,000 tablets of ecstasy,
authorities said.

"The organization, the testimony will show, was very sophisticated and
well-organized," said U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins. "There were cells
operating in cities all across America. This organization also employed
layers of couriers. Drops and exchanges would take minutes or less."

Windsor served as a hub in the operation. From at least August 2002 to May
2004, the ring moved high-grade "B.C. bud" from grow houses in the Toronto
area to Windsor. The pot was shipped mainly across the Ambassador Bridge,
the Windsor-Detroit tunnel and the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia.

Once the potent pot -- which usually sells on the street for between $3,500
and $4,000 US per pound -- reached the American side of the border, the
syndicate moved it to market in cities from Maryland to California.
Proceeds from the pot came back to Canada.

"Windsor was a staging point for all the stash houses operators," said Nick
Brook, who supervised the case for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I would term those people gatekeepers. They were people who had access to
the sources of supply and the heads of the organization."

Investigators said one of those gatekeepers was Bahn Thi "Mary" Nguyen, 38.
"She was like a black widow," said Brook.

"She was like the mastermind in Windsor and she controlled all the stash
houses. She controlled all the couriers." Brook said she also had a direct
pipeline to the ring's alleged kingpin, Trong Nguyen, 46, of Mississauga.
Brook wouldn't say how or if the two Nguyens were related.

10 STASH HOUSES HERE

Brook said there were at least 10 stash houses -- where the pot was
temporarily stored -- in Windsor. Police searched eight Windsor-area
residences and 15 vehicles in connection with Monday's charges, but RCMP
spokeswoman Michele Paradis said she couldn't release any details on the
searches because the warrants had been sealed.

Kieu Ly, 36, another of the Windsor residents arrested Monday, was nabbed
at 10:45 a.m. as he tried to return to Canada via the tunnel in his 2005
Ford Escape SUV. Brook said catching Ly was a coup.

"His information is going to be very useful to us, let's put it that way,"
he said.

When it came to sneaking the drugs across the border, Pete DiPonio of the
Canada Border Services Agency said the couriers used a combination of
passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles -- including garbage trucks.

TRASH TRAFFIC HELPED

Brook said the trash haulers were in on the scheme.

"Michigan is dumping all of Ontario's trash. There's no real secret there.
So they were just throwing it in the back of trash trucks, garbage trucks,
literally wrapped up in, obviously, wrapping material that was waterproof,"
he said.