SPECIALIZED FORCE TRACES PAPER TRAIL

THE LONG arm of the law dealt a crippling blow to an international crime
ring yesterday, striking decisively in a carefully crafted investigation
that's been in the works for two years. With Ottawa and Ontario provincial
police joining RCMP officers in raiding dozens of homes and businesses in
the capital, lead investigators say yesterday's mammoth bust was an
exercise in perseverance and teamwork.

"An enormous amount of commitment and flexibility was required from each
member of the team," said Project Codi leader RCMP Staff Sgt. Jacques
Lemieux, adding "enormous planning" helped to pull off one of the biggest
drug and money-laundering investigations in North America.

More than 300 police officers executed over 30 pre-dawn raids throughout
the city, capping a two-year international investigation that relied on
undercover agents, informants and wiretaps.

A veteran money-laundering investigator said police likely drafted a
detailed takedown plan at least a month in advance.

Proceeds-of-crime investigators will now be combing through evidence seized
yesterday to trace a dirty money trail to the crime ring's major players,
said Garry Clement, who spent 21 years in the RCMP's integrated
proceeds-of-crime section before retiring from the section's top post last
year.

Lifestyle Vs. Income

"They look for the financial records, expensive purchases, artwork, coin
collections, expensive furnishings and the like. What they are trying to
establish is that the individual did not have the legitimate income to
justify this status in life," said Clement, who is now chief of the Cobourg
Police Service.

While yesterday's sting snared both ringleaders and low-level drug runners,
Clement said investigators will rely on the crime ring's middlemen to spill
the beans on their masters.

"The hope is in a big case like this is that a few of these people decide
to co-operate," said Clement, who has co-ordinated dozens of drug and
money-laundering raids. "You're looking for someone in the upper echelon
who is going to co-operate. Generally you need someone higher up who is
going to say, 'Yes, this was my accountant, this is how we money-laundered,
we have money overseas.' "

Clement said virtually all proceeds-of-crime cases wind up with guilty
pleas, based on what he calls "overwhelming evidence."

He said unlike the lone traffic officer approaching a car by the roadside,
undercover officers know with whom they're dealing when infiltrating the
seedy underworld of drug traffickers.

"Generally speaking, we have a good idea what we're walking into and we put
in lots of safeguards to make sure our operators are fairly well protected."