B.C. TRUCK DRIVER ADMITS SMUGGLING DRUGS INTO U.S.

Another B.C. trucker caught as part of a multimillion-dollar drug
smuggling ring linked to the Hells Angels pleaded guilty in a Seattle
courtroom Thursday.

Chilliwack resident Richard Jansen, 33, admitted he used his Scorpion
Transport company to truck 158 kilos of B.C. bud across the border
last June 5.

The drug shipment was just one load from more than 770 kilograms of
cocaine, 3,175 kilograms of pot and about $3.5 million US that have
been seized or linked to the drug ring.

Jansen will face a minimum of five years and a maximum of 40 when he
is sentenced by Judge Robert Lasnik on April 10, the U.S. Attorney's
office said in a release.

Jansen was arrested following a three-year investigation into the ring
led by Hells Angel associate Robert Shannon of Maple Ridge, and car
dealer Devron Quast of Abbotsford.

Both Shannon and Quast pleaded guilty last fall and are in U.S.
custody awaiting their sentencing in March. They will face at least 10
years behind bars each. The indictment said they were the leaders of
the international drug gang working "on behalf of the Hells Angels
Motorcycle Club."

The U.S. court has so far not revealed how the Hells Angels is linked
to the drug traffickers, but The Vancouver Sun found photos of Shannon
posing with a full-patch Angel.

Another man in that photograph is Jody York, a Langley trucker and
associate of the Independent Soldiers gang. He had his house shot up
last fall.