'WRONG-WAY' BUST A BIGGIE

Crystal Meth, As Well As Coke, In Shipments From Mexico

Mounties say they are working with Mexican authorities after seizing
about $9 million in cocaine and crystal meth in Vancouver that is
believed to have come from Mexican drug cartels.

The bust is one of the biggest ever in B.C., RCMP Staff-Sgt. Dave
Goddard said at a news conference Tuesday in Vancouver.

The Canada Border Services Agency recently intercepted seven marine
shipping containers coming through the Port of Vancouver. The
commercial containers, declared to contain "crafts," came from Mexico,
police say.

When suspicious officers inspected the containers, they found
thousands of clay bricks amid lawn ornaments, bound for a Vancouver
landscaping-type business.

Police busted open the bricks and found about 300 kilograms of cocaine
and crystal methamphetamine that had been baked inside the small pallets.

A joint investigation by Vancouver police and the federal drug squad
resulted in five arrests on Sept. 27 outside a Marpole bus loop.

A sixth arrest was made at a nearby business connected to one of the
men arrested.

Police are withholding the name of the business as the international
investigation continues, Goddard said.

At the news conference, representatives from the Vancouver Police
Department, the RCMP and the border services agency, together with
burly undercover officers, surrounded a large table stacked with bags
of coke and meth, as well as the broken bricks that secreted the drugs.

Police say more charges are likely, but they are tight-lipped about
which gangs are believed to be behind the seized shipment.

The "huge-scale drug importation" indicates an international
organized-crime group, RCMP Const. Michael McLaughlin said.

The value of the drugs is estimated at between $8.7 million and $9.7
million.

Three men, Mexican national Eduardo Sierra Gonzalez, 32, and Francisco
Javier Gomez, 51, and Jason Quinn Lawrence, 42, both of Vancouver --
all previously unknown to police -- are charged with conspiracy to
import narcotics, police say.

Court records show the date of the alleged offence is May 15,
2010.

All three are in custody and scheduled to appear today in provincial
court in Vancouver.

The bust was unusual, as crystal meth is produced in B.C. and usually
smuggled south, not the other way around.

"It's almost an anomaly, with crystal meth coming in," Goddard
said.

"It's like someone importing marijuana to B.C."