POLICE BUST DRUG RING, SEIZE $9 MILLION IN COCAINE AND
METH

Police have broken up a sophisticated international drug ring that
smuggled more than $9 million of cocaine and meth from Mexico hidden
in clay bricks and lawn ornaments.

Three men -- Mexican [name1 redacted], 32, and Vancouver's [name2
redacted], 51, and
[name3 redacted], 42 -- have been charged
with conspiracy to import cocaine. None was known to police before the
current investigation, which began last June.

The men are alleged to have smuggled 275 kilos of cocaine and
methamphetamine, baked into paving stones and garden fountains, in
seven shipping containers through Port Metro Vancouver.

Canada Border Services Agency officers had suspicions about the
containers and sent the contents for secondary inspection in early
September. When some of the bricks were broken the cocaine was
discovered, CBSA official Colleen Pinvidic said.

Stacks of meth, cocaine and cash stuffed into clear plastic evidence
bags were on display at E Division headquarters in Vancouver on Tuesday.

The drug probe is the same one that shut down buses for several hours
last week when heavily armed police stopped a vehicle in front of the
Vancouver Transit Centre.

"We sympathize with the inconvenience that last Monday's police
actions may have caused, but trust that people understand how safety
and security must always be our first priorities," RCMP Supt. Brian
Cantera said Tuesday. Vancouver police were also involved in the Sept.
27 takedown.

Cantera, who heads the B.C. drug enforcement branch, declined to
comment on which local crime group was working with the accused men.

"We are not going to be at liberty to speak [about] where it connects
here locally," Cantera said. "The amount and value of drugs and cash
in this investigation leaves little doubt that organized crime is involved."

Cantera said the investigation also included the execution of search
warrants last week to enter a Vancouver warehouse and three residences.

[name2 redacted] runs an import company called [business name redacted],
according to corporate records.

Police said Tuesday they couldn't say where the containers had been
shipped from in Mexico.

But an online database of international shipping says [name2 redacted]'s
company
received a 48,000-kilo shipment of "artisans crafts" in September 2010
from Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico. It also says there was a 35,124-kg
shipment of decorative floor tiles in August 2009 from Manzanillo,
Mexico, to the same Vancouver company.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Dave Goddard said police here are working with Mexican
officials to determine what cartel supplied the cocaine.

Cantera said that while everyone focuses on the high value of the
cocaine, the real issue is the damage it could have done if not
intercepted.

"What really matters here is that over one million doses of illicit
drugs will never hurt fathers, mothers, children and those that are
mentally ill," Cantera said.

But he also told reporters Tuesday that "enforcement alone is not
enough.

"The RCMP believes in a balanced approach, including education,
awareness and enforcement. Raising awareness helps protect individuals
from becoming victims," he said.