MILLIONS IN POT CASH SMUGGLING

A group of Surrey marijuana growers smuggled millions of dollars in
pot profits over the border last year, say American investigators.

During a nine-month period, the 15 Canadians and Americans succeeded
in bringing $2.6 million US across the border on 16 occasions.

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

U.S. indictments say between Jan. 21, 2003 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.

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

Klotz says the marijuana was smuggled across the U.S.-Canada border
using a hiking trail, with the Canadian growers leaving the bud for
pick up by drivers on the other side.

One U.S. suspect was nabbed with 260 pounds of pot in the back of his
truck on the I-5 highway near Boeing field, Klotz said.

The 15 accused, including five Canadians, are facing charges of
violating the U.S. Patriot Act for so-called "bulk cash smuggling."

If convicted, they could face up to five years in jail and the
forfeiture of the illegally transported money.

It's the first time the Patriot Act has been invoked in Washington
State.

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