POLICE TELL B.C. DRUG ACCUSED LIFE AT RISK

Allegedly Involved In Marijuana, Ecstasy Trafficking

VANCOUVER - A man accused of participating in a massive West Coast
drug trafficking operation has been warned by police that his life is
under threat, after his offer to authorities to identify other
druglords was made public in a Seattle court last month.

The U.S. court issued arrest warrants in late December for Colin Hugh
Martin and three other men--Sean Doak, James Gregory Cameron and Adam
Christian Serrano. Extradition requests are pending.

All four are charged with conspiring to import large amounts of
marijuana and Ecstasy into the United States and trying to smuggle
cocaine back into Canada.

The court papers allege Mr. Martin, 37, headed the gang and sent
helicopters loaded with marijuana and Ecstasy to remote landing sites
in Washington and Idaho.

They are alleged to have smuggled as much as 300 kilograms of cocaine
back into B.C. weekly.

Last March, nine people were arrested in connection with the alleged
smuggling scheme.

At that time, police had seized two helicopters, 272 kilograms of B.C.
marijuana and more than 80 kilograms of cocaine, worth $15-million in
total.

Mr. Martin called the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Seattle
in February 2009, the indictment says, and asked for the return of his
helicopter.

He called the DEA's Vancouver office the following September, offering
to provide intelligence "regarding drug trafficking into the United
States."

He claimed to have the "ability to control 70% of the work that comes
out of B.C. and what comes into B.C.," explaining that he "had a long
history of credibility" in the drug business, which he had been in
"for most of my adult life," the Grand Jury indictment states.

The indictment also says Mr. Martin offered U.S. authorities a
bargain: he would identify co-conspirators and other drug lords, in
exchange for being allowed to continue his own drug operation for 10
years without arrest.

What Mr. Martin did not anticipate was that his offer to help in the
war on drugs would be made public in the court documents filed in
Seattle three days before Christmas.

Three days after Christmas, Mounties knocked on his door to tell him
that there was a contract out on his life.

"We warned him on Dec. 28 and are monitoring the situation," confirmed
RCMP spokesman Sergeant Tim Shields, adding that publicly identifying
informants was "absolute insanity."

"We felt a duty to inform him," said Sgt. Shields, who declined
further comment when asked if Mr. Martin had approached the RCMP to
offer his services, before making his pitch to the Americans.

There are many in B.C.'s six-billion-dollar drug trade -- which moves
marijuana and Ecstasy south in exchange for cash, cocaine and guns --
who would like to silence Mr. Martin.

They include members of the Hells Angels, the United Nations Gang and
the Independent Soldiers, all of whom have used Mr. Martin's
helicopter services to move their contraband.

Their high-grade "Sugar Shack" marijuana went to the United States for
about $2,500 to $3,000 a pound, while the cocaine came back to Canada
at about $14,000 per kilogram. Machine guns, grenades and even rocket
launchers were sometimes part of the exchange.

U.S. authorities warned the RCMP recently that a hit team was on its
way to Malakwa, B.C., to kill Mr. Martin.

That team was called off, likely because of police attention.