DETAILS EMERGE ON INTERNATIONAL DRUG RING WITH SPOKANE TIES

One Member Had Tried To Make Deal With DEA

An international drug ring that led to a young man's suicide in the
Spokane County Jail was headed by four Canadian men, authorities
allege, one of whom offered to cooperate if investigators let him
continue his operation for a decade.

That claim from federal agents, included in recently filed
indictments in U.S. District Court in Seattle, led Canadian
authorities to warn the would-be informant last month that gangsters
could be conspiring to kill him.

Colin Hugh Martin, of Malakwa, B.C., is accused of helping run a
multimillion-dollar international smuggling operation that used
helicopters to distribute thousands of pounds of marijuana, cocaine
and Ecstasy, landing in remote sites in Eastern Washington and North
Idaho.

He was indicted late last month on federal drug conspiracy charges
with three other Canadian men: Sean William Doak, James Gregory
Cameron and Adam Christian J. Serrano.

The indictment gives new details about a major smuggling operation
that stretched from Mexico to Canada and led to sealed court filings
and closed court hearings in Washington state as defendants said they
feared for their lives if word of their possible cooperation became
public.

The investigation became known among federal agents as Operation
BladeRunner.

Reaction in Canada to details in the new indictment about Martin's
alleged offer to turn in his associates underscored those fears.

Martin called the Drug Enforcement Administration in September and
offered to "provide ongoing information regarding drug trafficking
into the United States," the indictment says.

Over the next two months, the document alleges, Martin communicated
with an unspecified individual in the United States and claimed to
have "the ability to control 70 percent of the work that comes out of
B.C. and what comes into B.C."

He offered to identify conspiracies and aid in drug busts if he would
be allowed to continue his drug business for 10 years, according to
the indictment.

Those allegations led Canadian authorities on Dec. 28 to warn Martin
about the possibility of retaliation.

"His name was mentioned in a way we felt would compromise his
safety," said Sgt. Rob Vermeulen of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle,
said the office would never identify an informant, which she said
Martin is not.

Federal prosecutors don't accept offers such as Martin's anyway, she
said. "Categorically, we do not allow informants to break the law or
give them some kind of free pass to break the law," she said.

Martin owned the helicopter flown by Samuel Jackson Lindsay-Brown
when he was arrested in the Colville National Forest, accused of
transporting more than 400 pounds of marijuana.

The marijuana, authorities say, was meant to be traded for cocaine
transported by two men arrested in Utah days earlier, Leonard J.
Ferris and Ross N. Legge, who had a storage unit in Spokane Valley.
Ferris was sentenced to six years in federal prison last month.
Legge is fighting charges in Utah.

Lindsay-Brown, 24, committed suicide in Spokane County Jail on Feb.
27. Martin told authorities that Lindsay-Brown had stolen the helicopter.

But according to the new indictment, after Lindsay-Brown was
arrested, Doak allegedly sent a BlackBerry message to a
co-conspirator saying Martin "will be lucky if he is not dead" and
saying he'll likely have to pay for the lost load, estimated to be
worth $4 million to $5 million.

Martin, Doak, Cameron and Serrano are accused of orchestrating
another drug deal a week later in which another young man flew a
helicopter with marijuana into the United States, this time landing
near Priest Lake, Idaho. Jeremy Snow, of Kelowna, B.C., was sentenced
in October to 46 months in prison.

Serrano allegedly sent BlackBerry messages to co-conspirators days
before Snow's flight, looking for someone to pick up cocaine in Los
Angeles. DEA agents say he's boasted of smuggling up to 300 kilograms
of cocaine per week from the United States to Canada at $14,000 per
kilogram.

According to the new indictment, Snow's helicopter was owned by a
friend of Joseph Patrick Curry, a reputed Canadian gangster and
associate of Clay Roueche.

Curry, who's accused of loading the helicopter with drugs, is wanted
in U.S. District Court in Spokane after posting bail on drug charges
in 2007 and never returning to court, according to court documents.
Roueche, the founder of the Vancouver, B.C.-based gang United
Nations, was sentenced to 30 years in prison last month on drug
conspiracy charges in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

A woman sentenced on drug charges related to the case last year,
Lucretia James, cited a murder kit found at Roueche's home --
including guns, handcuffs and night-vision goggles -- when asking for
details of her plea deal to be kept secret.