B.C. MAN AMONG ARRESTED IN DRUG STING

SAN DIEGO (AP)-- An elusive international drug dealer and 30 other people,
including a B.C. man, were arrested following a two-year U.S. government
investigation dubbed Operation Doctor Wu, officials announced Friday.

The ringleader, "Doctor Wu," was named in an indictment unsealed Friday as
Baron Michael Angelo Suarez-Rothschild. He is being held in Singapore and
authorities are seeking to extradite him to the United States, said Misha
Piastro, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"He's a fairly elusive international drug-trafficker that we've suspected
of drug-trafficking since the early 1980s," Piastro said.

The Canadian suspect in the Doctor Wu arrests was identified as Roger
Ellingson of Cawston.

Investigators believe Suarez-Rothschild, who also goes by the name Michael
Grabarak, is about 53 years old, Piastro said. He carries a U.S. passport
but his true nationality and identity are unclear. Prosecutors said the
name "Doctor Wu" comes from a song by the band Steely Dan.

Suarez-Rothschild was being held for allegedly trying to send more than a
kilogram of cocaine through the mail from San Diego to Singapore, Piastro said.

His pending extradition to the U.S. "is probably a relief to him," Piastro
said, since Singapore imposes the death penalty for anyone caught with as
little as 56 grams of drugs.

For two years, investigators tracked a ring that distributed cocaine,
methamphetamine and marijuana in Southern California and shipped drugs to
Hawaii and Singapore. The meth was made in Mexico, the cocaine was from
South America and the pot from B.C., Piastro said.

Suarez-Rothschild's organization not only had ties to Hawaii and Singapore,
but to Australia and other countries in the Far East, Piastro said.

"This organization was moving millions of [US] dollars worth of drugs on a
yearly basis," he said.

"In one day alone, on April 1, we seized approximately half-a-million dollars."

In searches carried out Thursday, U.S. and local law-enforcement agencies
arrested 22 people in San Diego County, U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said. Raids
in Oahu, Hawaii, led to the arrests of eight people. Searches also were
conducted in Riverside County in California.

"The arrests today have significantly impacted the flow of cocaine,
methamphetamine and high-grade marijuana in San Diego County," Lam said.

Lam said 24 of the suspects have been indicted on charges of conspiracy to
import and distribute the drugs and money-laundering.

Authorities seized more than 5.8 kilograms of cocaine, a kilogram of
methamphetamine, and about 13.5 kg of high-grade marijuana. They also found
about $747,000 US in suspected drug proceeds and 20 weapons, including nine
assault rifles.

The operation involved overlapping drug-distribution cells in San Diego,
Ventura and Riverside counties in California, as well as Hawaii and Canada,
Lam said.

There was no indication Operation Doctor Wu was related to the arrest of
170 people Wednesday as part of a massive international drug investigation
that included Ottawa, Toronto and 12 U.S. states.