ALL CHARGES DROPPED IN MASSIVE INTERNATIONAL DRUG-SMUGGLING CASE

Police Had Charged Two Vancouver Men and a Mexican With Importing
Drugs Worth $9 Million

Federal prosecutors have dropped all charges laid last fall in a
high-profile international drug case in which more than $9 million
worth of cocaine was smuggled from Mexico.

The Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP's Federal Drug
Enforcement Branch showed off their massive cocaine and
methamphetamine seizure at a news conference in October, announcing
charges against two Vancouver men and a Mexican.

They claimed Vancouver businessman Francisco Javier Gomez, local
resident Jason Quinn Lawrence and Eduardo Gonzalez, of Mexico,
smuggled 275 kilograms of drugs, packed in limestone flooring and
garden fountains, in seven shipping containers through Port Metro Vancouver.

But late last month, all charges against the three were
stayed.

The Vancouver Sun obtained a copy of the letter sent by associate
chief federal prosecutor Martha Devlin to lawyers for the former
suspects June 20, saying she had sent a letter to the "Criminal
Registry directing a stay of proceedings on all counts on information
202377-C2 with respect to your clients."

There is no explanation provided as to why the charges were
stayed.

Devlin declined to comment on the stays when contacted by The
Sun.

RCMP Chief Supt. Brian Cantera said it was the decision of the Crown,
in consultation with police.

"It takes a high degree of evidence to convict beyond a reasonable
doubt. If the evidence doesn't support that bar that needs to be
reached, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada makes the decision
to enter a stay as they did in this case," Cantera said.

Lawyer Danny Markovitz, who represents Gomez, said his client was a
respected broker who simply facilitated an international shipment and
had no contact with the goods -nor knowledge of the cocaine -when it
got to Canada.

And Gomez, 52, said he is relieved the ordeal is over.

"Actually, they ruined my life," he said of police. "It was terrible.
I am just a broker doing my job. I don't know why they were so harsh
against me in the beginning."

As a broker, Gomez said he facilitated imports by arranging shipments
and doing all paperwork for the companies on either end of the
transaction.

Who packed the drugs in the shipment at the Mexican end remains a
mystery to him, Gomez said.

"Every single day there are thousands of transactions and thousands of
people like me making the paperwork and you don't know nothing about
what's inside. You never touch the container. You never have the
possession of nothing. It is just the paper you receive," he said.

Gomez said the 35 days he spent in pre-trial jail were
traumatic.

"I never even had a speeding ticket and then you are inside with
criminals and killers and that is scary," he said. "All the stress and
all the damage that this kind of thing makes to your family and you is
terrible, just terrible."

When he got out, he closed his company as police had seized his
computer and other equipment, and he worried that no one would want to
work with him anyway because of the charges.

He is now working for another firm promoting Canadian products abroad,
but still has not received his passport back, so can't travel.

Through it all, he said he never lost hope he would be
cleared.

"I am a proud Canadian, and I trust in the Canadian law and in the
institutions," Gomez said. "I was 100-per-cent sure everything would
become clear."