Cross-Border Drug Ring Broken: U.S.

Five Quebecers Arrested; Smuggled About 300 Pounds of Marijuana a Day
into United States, Authorities Say

Authorities in the United States say they have broken up a
billion-dollar drug trafficking ring that has been smuggling marijuana
into the U.S. from Quebec and Ontario.

Police say the ring leader was 23-year-old Brossard resident Steven
Sarti.

Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency arrested Sarti on June 17
in Vermont. This week indictments were handed down against 12 suspects
authorities said were members of Sarti's network from Ontario, Quebec,
Boston and Florida.

The latest arrests are among several recent busts of suspected
cross-border traffickers after a two-year investigation called
Operation Iron Curtain, which was designed to clamp down on smuggling
over the northeastern U.S.. border.

"Steven Sarti was the principal leader and organizer for a large-scale
drug trafficking organization that smuggles marijuana and currency
across the United States-Canadian border for delivery to drug dealers
in New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and
elsewhere," a DEA indictment states.

Police say the network has smuggled about 300 pounds a day of
marijuana into the United States with profits totalling more than $250
million U.S. a year. They say the drugs were smuggled across the St.
Lawrence River through Akwesasne by Ontario resident Richard Todd
Adams, 35, using a compound he owned in Snye, Quebec.

A second portal was across the Quebec-New York State border through
what police describe as a "secluded wooded area" near Franklin. Plata
is alleged to have led couriers carrying these shipments.

The traffickers sealed the marijuana inside vacuum-packed plastic
bags, which they transported in duffle bags labelled with a number and
customer identification or destination, police said.

Five Quebecers were arrested Tuesday. They are charged with drug
trafficking and money laundering.

In addition, alleged ringleaders Sardi and Edward (The Russian) Kener
of Weston, Fla., are charged with conducting a continuing criminal
enterprise.

Police officers seized about 5,000 pounds of marijuana and $7 million
in cash.

The latest roundup was the third since February linked to Operation
Iron Curtain, Assistant U.S. Attorney Grant Jaquith said.

In total, Police in the United States have arrest 45 people.