DRUG SMUGGLER OWNS SEIZED BOAT

Victoria's Philip John Stirling, Owner Of The Canadian Vessel
Discovered To Be Carrying $300 Million Worth Of Cocaine, Was
Sentenced In 1990 To Five Years In Jail For Several Cocaine
Conspiracy Charges

A B.C.-bound fishing trawler at the centre of one of the largest drug
seizures in the Pacific Northwest -- worth at least $300 million Cdn
on the streets -- is owned by a Victoria fisherman with a history of
drug smuggling.

Five Canadian men were arrested when the Western Wind was seized
Thursday night off the coast of Washington, but U.S. officials won't
say if Philip John Stirling, who bought the vessel in December, is
among the group being detained.

The U.S. District Attorney's office in Seattle said names will not be
released until charges are laid, and that is not expected to happen
until next week at the earliest.

No one was at home Friday at Stirling's rural home in Metchosin,
outside Victoria, where he lives with his wife Marlene and their
teenage son.

Stirling, 46, pleaded guilty in 1990 to several cocaine
conspiracy-related charges and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Court documents filed in civil court in Victoria regarding other
cases involving Stirling indicate he owned a fish processing plant in
the 1980s and sold it to create a commercial fishing venture with
another couple in 1989. Stirling's wife also owned a federal
government fishing licence that became the centre of a civil case in
1997.

RCMP Corporal Grant Learned said authorities in the U.S. and Canada
were alerted late last year to be on the lookout for Stirling's
26.9-metre-long fishing trawler after the vessel was spotted acting
suspiciously.

Then, on Wednesday, a Canadian Forces Aurora on a regular maritime
patrol saw the boat again, heading northbound in international
waters. U.S. authorities were notified and the vessel was tracked to
the Strait of Juan de Fuca and seized off Port Angeles, Wash. by the
U.S. Coast Guard.

"The boat was headed north when it was stopped, and it was quite
close to the Strait of Juan de Fuca which ... is a dividing line
[between the U.S. and Canada]," said U.S. Customs assistant special
agent Charles McLeod.

On board, officials found 2.5 tonnes of cocaine in 101 bundles --
wrapped in what looked like used sugar sacks -- hidden in the bow
section, McLeod said.

"An initial cursory inspection would not show [the cocaine]. It was
hidden," he said.

Each sack was stamped "Colombia." McLeod said it will be part of the
investigation to determine if the drugs came from that country, which
is infamous for exporting narcotics.

McLeod, who has worked for U.S. Customs for 30 years, said to his
knowledge it is the biggest seizure of cocaine ever made in that area
of the coast.

He estimates it would be worth $45 to $60 million Cdn wholesale and
at least $300 million when cut up and sold on the street.

"I've never seen a seizure this large of cocaine," said McLeod, who
has worked in the region for 12 years.

A typical cocaine seizure for that part of the U.S. would be five to
10 kilograms, he said.

The seizure would have also set records in B.C., and is more than all
the cocaine typically seized across Canada in one year.

However, the country's largest seizure of cocaine was 4,223 kilograms
in Quebec in 1992.

Learned said the size of the shipment indicates it was the work of
organized crime.

"This is a very substantial amount of cocaine. Very few crime
organizations world-wide could amass that amount of drug for
shipment," he said.

The men are now in an Immigration and Naturalization Service
detention facility in Seattle, where they will be held pending an
immigration hearing.

However, if they are charged with criminal offences, they will be
transferred to the custody of the department of justice, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Lawrence Lincoln said.

Transport Canada documents show the Western Wind was recently owned
by B.C. Packers Ltd., and then by a fisherman in Delta, before it was
purchased by Western Wind Fisheries Inc.

Stirling is listed as the sole director of that company.

Darryl Henry, of Parksville-based French Creek Boat Sales, said the
Western Wind was sold for $100,000 Dec. 15 from his Steveston sales
lot. The deal was arranged through lawyers, and he did not know how
the boat was financed.

"My salesman said the guy was a hard-dealing fisherman, grinding for
the best price," Henry said.

Henry said the new owner took the 38-year-old boat out a few times
before the sale was made, and did some work on it to prepare it for
tuna fishing.

Last November, Stirling was interviewed by a Vancouver newspaper
while sitting on the boat.

At that time, he was quoted as saying he had fished from the Queen
Charlotte Islands to Mexico to New Zealand for salmon, hake, cod and
tuna, but was angry at recent government quotas that prohibited him
from making a living while fishing.

"I'm being driven out of my own country to make a living," he told
the reporter.

A Canadian Press report in September 1990 said Stirling pleaded
guilty to the cocaine conspiracy charges.

He was the last of seven people charged after an eight-month
investigation by the Victoria city police drug squad and drug squads
in the U.S.

His defence lawyer at the time, John Green, said then that Stirling
had been a commercial fisherman in 1987 and then bought a
fish-processing plant he built up until it employed 30 people.

In June 1988, he sold the plant and bought a 21-metre fishing boat,
but ran into "unanticipated expenses" in getting the dragger ready to
fish, Green said.

"His motive was not to be a drug trafficker for the rest of his
life," Green said of his client in 1990.

Stirling was arrested in Vancouver on June 16, 1989, along with drug
couriers, the court document says.

Court documents also show a John Philip Stirling was charged in
Metchosin on Jan. 2, 1999 with possessing a controlled substance for
the purpose of trafficking, after police seized three kilograms of
marijuana. The charge was stayed the next year.