DRUG KINGPIN SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS

Man Amassed A Fortune As Head Of An International Cocaine And Meth
Empire

A year ago, police heading a probe into an international drug ring
bragged they had "chopped the head off the snake" when they arrested
Vancouver resident Yong Long Ye.

On Friday, Ye pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import and traffic in
cocaine and methamphetamine and was sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

And the 42-year-old also admitted he laundered millions in proceeds
from his drug operations and agreed to forfeit six properties in B.C.
and Ontario and $150,000 in mutual funds.

Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm said that the sentence, against
which Ye received two years pre-trial credit, is a stiff one.

"The crimes for which the accused has pleaded guilty call for a
lengthy prison term," Dohm said.

He noted that Ye's lawyer Ian Donaldson and federal Crown Anita Chan
entered a joint sentencing recommendation for the father of a toddler
son.

"The accused has pleaded guilty today to three very serious charges
dealing with drugs -- the manufacture of, the exporting of, the
trafficking of and in addition to laundering the proceeds of his
activities," Dohm said. "There is no question he was the operating
mind behind this whole operation."

Donaldson said that Ye saved court, policing and prosecution resources
by pleading guilty in a case that was expected to take more than a
year at trial.

While 16 co-accused are still before the courts, Donaldson said Ye's
"absence from the proceedings will result in a very significant
savings to the public." He also said that by pleading guilty and
forfeiting four Metro Vancouver houses and two Toronto-area
apartments, Ye "says I want this to be the end of it."

Ye wore a red prison uniform and sat emotionless, listening to his
Cantonese interpreter Friday.

Several of his relatives were in the courtroom for the plea, as were a
dozen police officers with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement
Unit, which oversaw the multi-agency, multi-year investigation into
the biggest drug syndicate in B.C. history.

Ye's criminal empire involved associates across Canada, in Australia,
the U.S., Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, India and China, the court
heard. He was buying cocaine in California and transporting it to
Canada, as well as manufacturing meth for sale in Australia, where it
can be sold for six times more than the going rate in B.C.

Chan said Ye was clearly motivated by the huge illicit profits in the
drug trade and made major amounts of money during the period covered
by the probe -- 2001 until his arrest in December 2007.

She said the Crown's case was "extremely strong" involving seven
separate wiretap warrants that captured incriminating conversations
between Ye and his associates over large shipments of money, drugs and
property transfers. "These transcripts show Ye was the man in charge,"
Chan said.

She said the gang moved "over $4 million between Toronto and
Vancouver" in just a few months last year using couriers flying on
commercial flights with packages containing hundreds of thousands of
dollars.

Some of that cash was intercepted by police, who opened luggage at
Vancouver airport, photographed the vacuum-packed bundles and then
re-packed it in the luggage so the courier could unwittingly claim the
bags and deliver the money to Ye.

Ye's world began to unravel in October 2006 when U.S. drug enforcement
officials learned that an organized crime group was importing large
quantities of cocaine from Los Angeles into Canada.

Chan described two of the shipments totalling 81 kilograms linked to
Ye in March and April of 2007 and worth $6.5 million at the street
level. A 20-kg load was uncovered in a commercial truck attempting to
cross into Canada, but the other 61 kilograms described in Ye's
recorded phone calls made it here undetected, she said.

As the investigation intensified, a Burnaby residence linked to the
gang was raided on Aug. 7, 2007, and police found a "fully functioning
meth lab," Chan said.

On Aug. 22, 2007, police also intercepted a load of meth sent to
Australia worth $2.5 million there. Afterwards, Ye was heard on
wiretap talking to an Aussie associate, trying to figure out how much
evidence police had, Chan told Dohm.

She said even when Ye was worried about the scrutiny of law
enforcement, he would simply "lay low, switch cellphones and continue
on as before."

On Sept. 13, 2007, a 550-pound shipment of ephedrine -- a precursor
chemical for meth-- was intercepted as it was trucked through
Manitoba, Chan said.

Until Ye was nabbed in December 2007, he lived on Vancouver's Deering
Island in a house assessed at $1.4 million, which is one of the six he
forfeited Friday. And it was where police surveilled him constantly,
uncovering much of the evidence used to get the convictions Friday,
even picking through the family's garbage searching for clues.

Police said they were happy with the outcome.

"This clearly illustrates the seriousness of the offences," said CFSEU
head Supt. Doug Kiloh. "The illegal drug trade affects people across
local, regional and international boundaries. I would like to thank
all the people and agencies involved for their dedication and hard
work in disrupting this organization.''

And RCMP Chief Supt. Bob Harriman said "today's guilty plea, sentence
and property forfeiture clearly demonstrates that criminal activity is
not a licence to print money."

"Besides facing the prospect of significant jail time, assets gained
through the proceeds of criminal activity will be seized or
forfeited," he said.