SURREY SUSPECTS CHARGED IN MILLION-DOLLAR CASE

CANADIAN - U.S. BORDER - American investigators say a small group of Surrey
marijuana growers smuggled millions of dollars in pot profits across the
border last year.

During a nine-month period, the 15 Canadians and Americans brought
$2.6 million (U.S.) across the border on 16 occasions.

In the same period, another $434,000 (U.S.) was intercepted at the
border on four occasions by U.S. Customs agents who caught "couriers"
with cash jammed into compartments in their vehicles or concealed on
clothing.

The U.S. indictments say between Jan. 21 and Oct. 9, 2003, an
undercover agent working as a courier for the conspirators brought
amounts ranging from $48,000 to $354,000 across the border from
Washington State into B.C.

Each time, the courier was given an undisclosed percentage of the
delivery-described as a "smuggling fee"-by the recipients.

Most of the smuggled money ended up in Surrey, where 14 of the 16
successful deliveries arrived (two of the 14 were sent to Cloverdale).
Deliveries were also made to Vancouver and Richmond.

One female smuggler stuffed $149,000 into her nylons in an
unsuccessful bid to avoid detection at the border, while another man
hid the money "on the persons of his wife, niece and nephew, who were
passengers" in the man's vehicle, court documents state.

An affidavit filed in Seattle by J. Robert Klotz, special agent with
the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says two
brothers-Tri Duc Phan and Quyen Tan Phan-ran the scheme to smuggle
money raised for the sale of Surrey-grown B.C. bud back into Canada.

Klotz said the pot was smuggled across the border using a hiking
trail, with the Canadian growers leaving the bud for pickup by drivers
on the other side. One U.S. suspect was nabbed with 260 pounds of pot
in his pickup truck on the I-5 highway near Boeing field.

The 15, including five Canadians, face charges of violating the U.S.
Patriot Act ban on so-called "bulk cash smuggling."

If convicted, they face up to five years in jail and forfeiture of the
illegally transported money. It's the first time the Patriot Act has
been invoked in Washington.

The law was passed after the 9/11 attacks to counter terrorist
money-laundering, but also applies to "international drug cartels and
others engaged in organized crime," U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sullivan
said in a written statement.