A DRUG-RUNNER'S MEXICAN ESCAPE

Convicted Ringleader Ben Fitznar May Have Been on the Lam, but He Had
No Intention of Hiding

Wolfgang Benedict Fitznar may have been on the run in Mexico as a
convicted ringleader in B.C.'s biggest hashish bust, but he was by no
means in hiding.

The veteran tugboat captain, who'd lived in Bella Coola and
Tsawwassen, enjoyed a very public life in the colonial town of Merida
for years after he fled Canada in late 2003 to escape a five-year
sentence for his role in the global smuggling operation. A total of 14
people were convicted in the seizure of about 12 tonnes of hashish,
worth almost $50 million, on Vancouver Island in November 1998.

The tropical state of Yucatan -- a haven for Canadian and American
tourists -- seemed to suit Fitznar.

He set himself up as a real-estate consultant.

He served on the management team of a planned golf course and
resort.

He had a close association with Simon Renshaw, the

Los Angeles manager of country music's Dixie Chicks, and with
Renshaw's Villa Merida, named best boutique hotel in Mexico by
London's The Independent newspaper, and one of the top 10 such hotels
in the world.

Fitznar even sent out Christmas cards depicting himself and his wife,
Grace Quaglio, a university-trained pianist, and son, Sebastian Max, a
victim of cerebral palsy, standing on the steps of the Villa Merida.

"A pretty ballsy move," said Gino Stradiotti, president of
Vancouver-based North Arm Transportation Ltd., for which Fitznar had
done contract work with his tug, Ocean Warrior. "It didn't seem like
he was living in a cave."

As happens with criminals on the lam, however, the good times ran out.
The Federales (Mexican Federal Police) arrested Fitznar and extradited
him to Canada on May 26, 2009, to serve his five-year sentence.

He now faces deportation to Germany, where he was born, as early as
this Monday.

But even some of those charged in the same smuggling case are
surprised at how long Fitznar remained on the run.

Rick Farrington of Nanaimo jumped into the freezing waters of Fanny
Bay when the RCMP swooped in during the unloading of the hashish back
in 1998; he was later sentenced to three and a half years in jail.

"They could have sent Dog the Bounty Hunter down there," Farrington
joked of Fitznar's years of open freedom in Mexico. "Nobody understood
it. They worked so hard to prosecute us and put their case together --
years and millions of dollars -- and short of an airline ticket they
could have gone and got him."

Slow Wheels of Justice

John Green, a Victoria defence lawyer during the hashish trial, said
he's "pretty sure" the RCMP knew where Fitznar was, but he suspects
the wheels of justice turn more slowly in Mexico.

No one in Canada's foreign affairs or justice departments could be
reached to comment on the circumstances of the extradition. The
Mexican consulate in Vancouver also refused to comment.

RCMP spokesman Constable Michael McLaughlin in Vancouver could only
say that "at first we didn't know where he was...and it wasn't until
we did know and started the extradition proceedings that we could
bring him back."

Ed Dahl, the former owner of Delta Tug & Barge Ltd., once employed
Fitznar as a tug captain and dispatcher.

"Ben should have done his time, too, and got rid of the God damned
thing and lived a normal life again," he said.

"But not Ben. Why skip the country? Why did he ever do that? For
what?

"I think he made the biggest mistake of his life."

The Mexican government issued a news release on Fitznar's extradition
at home in Spanish, even posted a mug-shot photo on its website, in
which the smuggler appears to be smiling.

Canadian news agencies never picked up on it.

Fitznar began quietly serving his time in federal prison and applied
for early parole, after serving one-third of his sentence.

In a written decision dated Dec. 12, the Parole Board of Canada
confirmed Fitznar as "one of the ringleaders" in the hashish-smuggling
operation.

The board also found him to be a good inmate with no prior criminal
record, no history of violence or spousal abuse, and with a low risk
of reoffending.

The parole board noted in its decision that statements to the
presiding judge at sentencing "indicate that your co-conspirators had
backgrounds of being ordinary, otherwise law-abiding citizens rather
than members of a criminal organization involved in violence."

As Vancouver defence lawyer Marilyn Sanford put it: "It was a very
nice group of clients, I have to say."

Although Fitznar's sentence won't officially expire until May 25,
2014, the board granted him full parole effective his eligibility date
- -- this coming Monday.

That doesn't mean he will be walking the streets of Canada any time
soon.

The board also stipulated that "full parole will not come into effect
until you can be released into the care and control of the appropriate
government agencies involved in carrying out your deportation."

The Canada Border Services Agency confirmed it has an "enforceable
removal order in place" for Fitznar.

Fitznar, 62, has a German passport -- but no Canadian passport -- and
arrived in Canada from Germany as a child with his parents.

If he is not removed from the country within 48 hours, he must appear
before the Immigration and Refugee Board for a detention review hearing.

The Lure of Fast Money

The Vancouver Sun's investigation determined that before succumbing to
the fast money of drug smuggling, Fitznar led a respectable life as a
tugboat captain on the B.C. coast.

"From the boat side of things, he seemed like a pretty normal guy,"
said Stradiotti, who employed Fitznar when he lived in Bella Coola.
"Without the bringing-in-hashish aspect to his life, he certainly
presented himself just fine as a tugboat captain.

"If he'd kept that off his CV and toiled away like the rest of us do,
I'm sure he could have managed just nicely."

Fitznar and one of his co-accused, Ken Thomson, sentenced to two and a
half years, grew up together at Maple Bay in the Cowichan Valley of
Vancouver Island and later went into the tug business in Bella Coola.

Thomson, now a whale-watching operator in Tofino, confirmed his
company, Ocean Towing and Salvage Ltd. of Hagensborg, bought the Gulf
Warrior (renamed the Ocean Warrior in 1995) from Rivtow Marine
Enterprises Ltd. in 1993. Fitznar worked for Thomson to start, then
bought the tug a few years later, he said.

"I really have no idea of what happened to him [in Mexico]," said
Thomson, eager to put the whole ordeal behind him. "I don't have a
clue of the life he lived down there."

Ed Dahl's Delta Tug & Barge Ltd. bought the Ocean Warrior in
2003.

A veteran of 40 years in tug, barge and marine construction on the
B.C. coast, Dahl is now retired, fighting facial cancer, and living in
a desirable two-storey floating home on the Fraser River near Ladner.

He described Fitznar as a "handy guy and very personable, very
talkative. He could charm a snake."

He said Fitznar lived in a Tsawwassen condo and had a company vehicle
while employed with him. He also had a young, "knock-dead gorgeous"
wife and a young son he adored.

Fitznar's wife, Grace Quaglio, graduated from the University of B.C.
with a master's degree in music in May 1989, later continued her
studies in Montreal, and gave concerts in Mexico. Her whereabouts, as
well as those of her son, are unknown, although she is known to have
family in Australia.

"I knew his wife well," continued Dahl, noting he sold Delta Tug &
Barge about two and a half years ago. "We had dinners together. His
little boy had cerebral palsy. Ben played for hours with him. He was a
great father."

Dahl recalls telling Fitznar: "Go serve your time. I'll have a job for you
when you get out. He had a pretty good gig with me. But that wasn't good
enough for him. He decided he's out of here."

Dahl recalls being on holidays in Los Angeles around Christmas 2003
when Fitznar called him. He'd left Canada for Merida, where his
daughter from a previous marriage was residing.

"Ben phones me and says, 'I'm gone.' He left me out on the limb quite
a bit. I had to come back from my vacation because he was looking
after the office."

Dahl said he had no qualms about employing Fitznar despite the pending
drug trial.

"I knew the circumstances," he said, looking out across the Ladner
marshes and the distant North Shore mountains. "He was enticed by some
extra money that was going to come his way, that's all."

Extra money -- and then some. The parole board estimated the street
value of the hashish at $47.7 million.

Unbeknownst to the participants, however, the elaborate smuggling
scheme was doomed from the beginning.

An Illicit Voyage

The case begins in Nova Scotia, where RCMP had received a tip about
the suspicious arrival of men from B.C. and costly modifications to
the aging scallop dragger Blue Dawn.

Police issued an alert to authorities in Europe and the Middle East as
the vessel left Yarmouth in October 1997 and motored across the
Atlantic and into the Mediterranean.

While docked in the Greek port of Souda at Chania, Crete, in January
1998, the Hellenic Coast Guard secretly fitted the vessel with a
satellite tracking device.

RCMP in Vancouver could then track the Blue Dawn as it proceeded
through the Suez Canal to exotic locales such as Sri Lanka and
Thailand, where hashish from Pakistan or Afghanistan was thought to
have been loaded onto the vessel while offshore Phuket.

The Blue Dawn continued to waters off Singapore and Indonesia before
eventually heading across the Pacific for the B.C. coast.

In October 2008, Canadian Forces aircraft closely monitored its
movements, including a meeting with the 18-metre fishing vessel Ansare
II.

Then, at 2 a.m. on Nov. 4, 1998, RCMP moved in and seized 9.59 tonnes
of hashish being unloaded from the Ansare II onto a dump truck at
Fanny Bay, Vancouver Island.

The same day, at 7 a.m., about 540 nautical miles northwest of Port
Hardy, the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the mother ship in the operation,
the Blue Dawn, followed by RCMP and Canadian Forces vessel HMCS Huron.
Another 2.35 metric tonnes of hashish were seized.

150 Officers Involved

The global investigation had involved about 150 officers, including
some Mounties who voluntarily worked unpaid overtime to bring the case
to a successful conclusion.

It is thought the hashish, a potent form of marijuana, was destined
for Central Canada; the drug is especially popular in Quebec.

The expansion of illicit B.C. bud and hashish locally since then has
largely put an end to such foreign smuggling schemes.

A total of five individuals, mainly involved in the unloading and
attempted distribution of the hashish, went to court in Nanaimo in
2000 and were sentenced to three to four years in jail.

The nine others, including Fitznar, were convicted in Vancouver
Provincial Court in 2004.

The B.C. Court of Appeal in September 2006 upheld the sentences and
convictions of seven of the accused.

The last B.C. news story on the case concluded with the line:
"Wolfgang Fitznar fled the country during the trial and has not been
found."

Not long after that court decision, Fitznar's name started appearing
on the Internet, where anyone capable of conducting a Google search
could have found him.

A Web reference dated 2007 -- two years before his extradition from
Mexico -- includes the following quote on NuWire Investor, related to
real-estate investment in Merida: "'Housing in Centro, beach condos and golf
[and/or] tennis developments would be excellent investments and attainable
from $1,000,000 [U. S.] to $200,000 [U. S.],' Ben Fitznar of Real Estate
Investment and Development in Merida said in an email interview."

In 2009, he was quoted speaking about real-estate development
opportunities in the Mayan jungle town of Tulum, on the Yucatan
Peninsula southeast of Merida. "Playa del Carmen was the fastest
growing community globally in 2005 and 2006," Fitznar said. "Tulum
will be next."

On a website for Flamingo Lakes Golf & Country Club Resort, near
Merida, Fitznar is listed as director of the company's Design Centre.

Next to a photo of Fitznar, the company describes him thus: "A
Canadian national, Ben Fitznar spent 25 years in the marine
transportation and hospitality industries in his home country before
his entrepreneurial spirit took him to Merida in 2004 to establish a
boutique hotel, Villa Merida, in a fine old colonial building."

Flamingo Lakes describes itself as a "2,200-acre master planned gated
community of detached luxury homes and condominiums within an
exclusive resort setting ..."

In 2005, The Independent newspaper named the Villa Merida as Mexico's
best boutique hotel, and the sixth best out of 10 such hotels globally.

Travel writer Danielle Demetriou wrote: "This 19th-century nobleman's
estate is now an impeccably restored retreat. The focal point is a
central courtyard and gardens, with ornate fountains, tropical green
fronds, a lily pond and an intricately shaped swimming pool.

"Lofty porticoes line the courtyard, providing canopied seating in the
shade. The ambience of a colonial home is captured perfectly."

The hotel website states that in 2004 the original villa "was
converted into this small luxury hotel...."

The seven rooms/suites fetch $175 to $265 US per night, double
occupancy, including breakfast but not taxes.

Contacted by The Sun, hotel manager Luis Osorio confirmed over the
phone that "yes, of course" Simon Renshaw -- manager of the Dixie
Chicks and founder of Strategic Artist Management -- owns the Villa
Merida.

Living the High Life

The hotel's Facebook page includes an April 30 posting promoting the
new album Court Yard Hounds, a musical offering from duo and sisters
Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, two-thirds of the platinum-selling
country-pop group the Dixie Chicks. It states: "New music from the
band that we would most like to host around our courtyard! We're sure
that when they do visit Merida, the[y] will be staying at The Villa!"

It all makes you wonder how a B.C. tug captain ended up in such heady
international circumstances.

Thomson, Fitznar's long-time friend and co-accused, says it all stems
from a chance meeting between Fitznar and Renshaw many years ago in,
yes, Mexico.

"He met Simon, to the best of my knowledge, totally by accident, a
fluke, on a beach," he said.

"It was purely a social coincidence, and, I think, later on, they
managed to stay friends."

Thomson says he is no longer in contact with Fitznar, but that he
wishes him well in his future life.

Where that life leads Fitznar is uncertain, but it is not likely to
include the calming, mist-shrouded inlets of the B.C. coast that once
sustained him so well.

[sidebar]

CHRONOLOGY OF A CRIME

The voyage of the retrofitted Blue Dawn was doomed from its inception.
But police took longer to catch up with Fitznar.

October 1997

The 30-metre fishing vessel Blue Dawn leaves Yarmouth, N.S. Acting on
a tip about a suspicious B.C. group making costly modifications to the
aging scallop dragger, RCMP issue an alert to authorities in Europe
and the Middle East under the name "Project E-Profit."

May 2000

Five men caught unloading the hashish are sentenced in Nanaimo: Steve
Oczkowski, 37, Kenneth Abt, 42, Daniel Berrigan, 46, and Robert Nelsen, 45,
are sentenced to three years in prison, while Ansare II captain Douglas
Davidson, 52, gets four years.

January 1998 While the Blue Dawn is docked in Port Souda, Chania, on
the Mediterranean island of Crete, the Hellenic Coast Guard of Greece
secretly fits a satellite tracking device to the vessel.

Over the following months: The Blue Dawn is tracked on an RCMP
computer in Vancouver to Sri Lanka and offshore Phuket, Thailand,
where bales of hashish from Pakistan or Afghanistan are thought to be
loaded. The vessel begins its Pacific voyage to B.C.

April 2004

After a three-year trial, the remaining nine smugglers, including one
woman, are convicted in Vancouver. Ben Fitznar has fled the country
for Mexico.

October 1998 Canadian Forces aircraft from Comox fly 24 missions to
monitor the Blue Dawn and note its meeting with the 18-metre fishing
vessel Ansare II.

September 2006

The B.C. Court of Appeal upholds the convictions of seven of the
smugglers who appealed. Twin brothers Sanford (captain and owner of
the Blue Dawn) and Joel Hately, Kurt Patrick Guilbride, brothers
Kenneth Robert and Ronald Thomson, and Richard Farrington begin
serving jail sentences ranging from two and a half to six years.
Appellant Sylvie Goyer has already served her time. Ronald Grant was
also convicted and served his sentence.

November 1998 RCMP move in while 9.59 tonnes of hashish are unloaded
from the Ansare II at Fanny Bay on Vancouver Island. Later, U.S. and
Canadian authorities board the Blue Dawn northwest of Port Hardy in
international waters, and seize another 2.35 tonnes of hashish.

May 2009

Mexican authorities extradite Fitznar to Canada to serve a five-year
sentence.

January 2011

Fitznar is granted parole in Canada and prepares for deportation to
Germany.

Compiled by Larry Pynn from newspaper stories,
as well as documents/interviews with B.C. Court of Appeal, Parole
Board of Canada, Mexican government and RCMP.