ABBOTSFORD MAN ADMITS ROLE IN DRUG SMUGGLING

Father Says Devron Quast Was A Fall Guy For Kingpins Who Haven't Been
Caught

Abbotsford car dealer Don Quast wants the kingpins behind the drug
ring that brought his son down to face justice.

"The guys that are behind it are always the guys who get away with
it," Quast said Thursday after learning his son Devron had pleaded
guilty in a Seattle courtroom to drug trafficking and money
laundering."That's what bugs me. They set up these buffer guys and
find fall guys, and the bigwigs, nothing happens to them. That is the
unfortunate part."

Quast said his family, including Devron's wife and two daughters, has
been devastated since the 38-year-old was arrested in Washington state
last June with an alleged associate of the Hells Angels.

Devron Quast and Robert J. Shannon were caught in an undercover sting
that had them meeting a suspected drug contact in a Ferndale burger
joint who was really a police agent.

RCMP said Shannon, who has yet to go to trial, is an associate of
three different B.C. chapters of the notorious biker club.

Don Quast said his son must face the music for his actions, which will
bring him a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.

"It just drives me nuts. I mean, I love my son. Morally, I am there
for him, but I can't condone what he did either," the elder Quast said.

"There is just no explaining the feeling. It has changed our lives
forever. It has changed his. He knows he did wrong and was trying to
be a man about it and said, 'I will do what I have to do.'"

The U.S. Attorney's office said Devron Quast admitted to involvement
in smuggling more than 30,000 kilos of B.C. marijuana into the United
States as part of the drug ring. He pleaded guilty to both conspiracy
to distribute cocaine and marijuana and conspiracy to engage in
money-laundering, charges that stemmed from a three-year cross-border
investigation that saw a total of 40 suspects nabbed, including 12
Canadians.

The probe resulted in the seizure of more than 1,700 pounds of
cocaine, 7,000 pounds of B.C. pot and about $3.5 million.

Court documents filed in the case said the sophisticated scheme
involved hiding drugs inside hollowed-out logs on trucks, within the
false walls of cargo containers and vehicles, within loads of
commercial lumber, inside large PVC pipes and in the interior of a
propane tanker. Some of the illicit loads were carried across the
border by willing foot soldiers.

The U.S. Attorney said the younger Quast oversaw the day-to-day
operations of the drug transporting, even providing insurance to the
B.C. marijuana suppliers that drugs would be successfully smuggled
into the U.S. The whole time he was running the drug ring, Quast was
working as the general manager of Don Quast Hyundai in Abbotsford.
Another Quast Hyundai employee, Phillip Stone, also pleaded guilty
this week to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana as part of
the same ring.

Last June, Stone told The Vancouver Sun he had "nothing to do with any
of this." But now he has admitted to obtaining containers and trailers
to transport the B.C. Bud across the border.

John Fairweather, 52, who was arrested at a Washington warehouse where
Quast had been storing the drugs, pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Both men are to be sentenced early next year.

U.S. authorities allege Shannon, a Maple Ridge resident, was "in
charge of distributing the narcotics on behalf of the Hells Angels
Outlaw Motorcycle gang and others."

Shannon and Richard Jansen, of Chilliwack, are due to go to trial in
February.

Jansen, owner of Scorpion Transport Services, allegedly assisted the
organization by driving his trucks across the border to facilitate
smuggling.

Police had been recording Devron Quast's telephone calls to their
agent, including one made about a "hot load" that would be ready for
delivery to the U.S. on June 5 and taken to the warehouse where
Fairweather and Jansen were later arrested.