DAY OF RECKONING: UN GANG BOSS GETS 30 YEARS

Judge Had No Doubt Clay Roueche Was Head Of Drug Smuggling Empire With
Profound Impact On Many

United Nations gang leader Clay Roueche was sentenced to 30 years behind
bars Wednesday, as U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert Lasnik decried
the pain inflicted by Roueche's drug smuggling empire.

"There are ... children, brothers, sisters and parents suffering every day
because of the cocaine and marijuana disbursed by the defendant and his
fellow gang members," Lasnik said. "Children who go to bed hungry because
parents spend the money they have feeding their habit .. These are not
victimless crimes -- they have a profound impact on the people, on
neighbourhoods and on the communities of our district."

Lasnik said Roueche, 34, was a talented man with astute business acumen
and a loyal friend who would be sorely missed by his three young
daughters.

But Lasnik said there was no doubt the Fraser Valley man "is the
acknowledged leader of a dangerous gang of criminals."

"I acknowledge there is much good in Mr. Roueche," Lasnik said. "But today
is a day of reckoning."

Roueche pleaded guilty last April to smuggling marijuana and cocaine
across the border, as well as laundering millions of dollars in drug
profits.

The U.S. Attorney proposed a 30-year sentence, saying Roueche's gang
smuggled tens of thousands of kilos of marijuana and cocaine across the
B.C.Washington border and Roueche had set up shop in a number of American
cities.

"He used private airplanes, float planes, helicopters, cars, semi-trucks
and coded Black-Berry telephones to create a secret and successful
organization that he planned to extend into the Far East and South
America," U.S. prosecutors said in their sentencing memo.

He also laundered about $26 million US annually in drug profits, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Susan Roe said.

Roueche's lawyer, Todd Maybrown, said 15 to 20 years would be more in line
what other conspirators in this case, as well as other Canadian drug
traffickers, had received in recent years.

Lasnik said the letters from Roueche's young daughters, whose mother has
had a mental breakdown, were the most poignant statements on the gang
leader's behalf.

But he said he had to deal with the evidence before him.

There was no doubt, Lasnik said, that Roueche is the leader of the UN gang
"with a capital L."

"In this case I can say with absolute certainty that Mr. Roueche feared no
one, took orders from no one and was the one making the decisions," Lasnik
said.

He said he had to "deter others who may want to take up the mantle."

Before learning his fate, Roueche seemed upbeat and gave a brief statement
to the court that he appeared to write up as the proceeding began.

"I would like to apologize to my family for getting into this situation,"
Roueche said.

He said that when someone lands in his circumstances, they find out who
their friends really are.

"I have some of the best friends in the world," he said. "Life is one big
lesson and it is important to learn from the mistakes."

There was no mention of violence or the cost to society of his years of
drug smuggling.

"What's negative today is positive tomorrow," he said optimistically.

Roueche appeared in beige prison clothes, with freshly styled hair with
gelled bangs.

He smiled at his parents, Rupert and Shirley, who sat in the second row.
And he joked with Maybrown as media and law enforcement from both sides of
the border packed the 15th-floor courtroom.

But Roueche's mood changed when he heard his fate. He looked sullen, head
sitting in his hands, his elbows planted on the table in front of him.

Roe made a convincing case to Lasnik about the international reach of the
UN gang and its use of violence when necessary to advance its interests.

Not only was Roueche found to have an illegal Glock in his apartment after
his arrest last year, several co-conspirators charged in California were
found with assault rifles, loaded magazines, a Baretta with a silencer,
millions of dollars and hundreds of kilos of cocaine, Roe said.

She said Roueche was "an accomplished person" who could have been very
successful in the legitimate business world.

"Clay Roueche was a world traveller because he had a global business
empire," Roe said.

She said Roueche smuggled guns across the border and also threatened
people he felt nervous about in the drug trade.

He was caught on tape saying that some of his contractors had ripped him
off and "two people would be killed and another would be on the run."

Canadian wiretaps from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit showed
he had organized crime contacts across Canada, Roe said.

"His life is violent and he is involved in the violence personally," she
said.

At a news conference afterwards, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said her
office would oppose any attempt by Roueche to transfer back to Canada to
serve his sentence.

She said normally any offender in the U.S. serves at least 85 percent of
his or her sentence.

Leigh Winchell, in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
here, said the UN gang had suffered a major blow because of Roueche's
conviction.

But he said he knows it is just a matter of time before someone else tries
to take over. "If you have ever weeded your garden you know you pull one
weed out, sooner or later you are going to have to pull another one," he
said. "Somebody is going to step up. But I think this will set some of
these people back and make them think a little more about it."

He also said the cooperation between law enforcement on both sides of the
border was amazing throughout the Roueche probe, Wenchell said.