STONEY CREEK SMUGGLER JAILED

Lee Whitley sentenced to 18 years in U.S. prison

Lee Whitley spent six years behind bars trying to avoid this moment.

But yesterday a United States District Court judge in Buffalo sentenced the
Stoney Creek man -- who had fought extradition to the U.S. all the way the
Supreme Court of Canada -- to a further 12 1/2 years in prison, bringing
his total term on four counts of marijuana smuggling to more than 18 years.

``I want to apologize for what I've done. My eyes are open now. Maybe I can
live a better life. I'm a much brighter man than I was six years ago,''
Whitley told Judge Richard J. Arcara.

Whitley, 42, was arrested at his large, waterfront home in Stoney Creek in
August 1992 after a year-long investigation into a Texas-Ontario pot
pipeline by Hamilton-Wentworth police and close to a dozen law enforcement
agencies in the U.S.

He was indicted by a grand jury in Buffalo for engaging in a continuing
criminal enterprise, along with four counts of drug possession, trafficking
and importation.

When the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his appeal of the
extradition order, Whitley pleaded guilty in Buffalo in 1996 to the four
drug charges. Under the plea bargain, U.S. federal prosecutors agreed to
recommend a term of 11 to 14 years, although the judge had discretion to
impose up to a life sentence.

Arcara initially expressed reservations about the deal, saying if Whitley
were allowed to serve his term in Canada, he'd serve far less time in
prison than an American inmate because of more lenient parole provisions
here.

Defence lawyer Angelo Musitano argued Whitley would likely not be allowed
to transfer his sentence because of its length and because assistant United
States attorney Joseph Guerra had opposed such an application.

The plea bargain stipulated Whitley could also face a fine ranging from
$17,500 to $4 million, but Musitano maintained his client was broke. He
said Whitley had outstanding judgments against him in Ontario for more than
$300,000 and owed another $205,000 to Revenue Canada. No fine was imposed
by the judge.

Hamilton-Wentworth Staff-Sergeant Mark Simchison began investigating
Whitley's drug operations in 1991 and, seven years later, was there to see
him sentenced.

``I'm satisfied overall with the outcome. I think Judge Arcara summed it up
for me by saying that Lee Whitley's actions have impacted on the quality of
life of a lot of people, both in our community and the States.

``I'm not going to debate whether or not marijuana is a soft drug. It's a
drug and a narcotic and Whitley was dealing in tonnage, not ounces or
grams.''

In their investigation, dubbed Operation Lumberjack, police seized more
than $2 million (700 to 1,000 kilograms) in hard-packed bricks of marijuana
and arrested six men.

Whitley's co-conspirators on both sides of the border have all been sentenced.

The pipeline route stretched from Texas to upstate New York and across the
border into Ontario.

Bricks of marijuana were packed into hidden compartments of cars and driven
across the country, then either driven or flown across the Canadian border
from a small airfield near Hamburg, N.Y.

Arcara took into consideration Whitley's Canadian criminal record, which
dated back to his street gang days in east Hamilton in the early 1970s.

``When I look at his whole life, I say, `My God! Is this criminal activity
ever going to stop? Do we have to protect society here because of this
ongoing criminal history?''

Musitano noted 72 per cent of all federal inmates in the United States are
men who have grown up without a father, or with one who was physically
abusive. He said Whitley fell into the former category.

``His mother tells me she tried her best, your Honour, but there was no
discipline at home because Mrs. Whitley was too busy working and raising
seven kids and just trying to get along.''

Simchison said Whitley's criminal career has also set several legal
precedents in Canada, including allegations of a similar drug-smuggling
operation in 1985, which were tossed out of court because police wiretaps
were ruled illegal.

``With the wiretap evidence being thrown out, all the derivative evidence
(contraband) was also tossed out. In that respect, he was responsible for
the ``fruit of the forbidden tree'' theory being put into play in Canadian
law,'' said Simchison.