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News (Media Awareness Project) - CN BC: Two-Year Integrated Police Investigation Results In Charges
Title:CN BC: Two-Year Integrated Police Investigation Results In Charges
Published On:2003-08-14
Source:Abbotsford News (CN BC)
Fetched On:2008-01-19 16:54:27
TWO-YEAR INTEGRATED POLICE INVESTIGATION RESULTS IN CHARGES

An Abbotsford man is facing drug trafficking charges after an
organized crime investigation that previously resulted in the arrests
of two men for the 1996 Harris Road murders.

Andrew Goosen, 19, is one of 11 men charged after a two-year
integrated police investigation that involved RCMP, Organized Crime
Agency of BC, Vancouver Police and Abbotsford Police.

He is charged with conspiring to traffic cocaine and heroin, and
appeared in a Vancouver courtroom yesterday on the charges.

RCMP allege Goosen was part of a criminal organization headed up by
Anthony Terazakis, 43, who police believe is an associate of the East
end chapter of the Hells Angels.

Terazakis is the first person in B.C. to be charged under new federal
laws dealing with organized crime, said RCMP Insp. Bob Paulsen.

The legislation allows for stronger sentences and creates three new
offences under the organized crime category, including director of a
criminal organization, which is the offence Terazakis is charged with.

Terazakis, Goosen and two other men were allegedly involved with drug
trafficking activity centered around the American Hotel in Vancouver's
east side in 2002.

The joint forces investigation grew out of a 1995 seizure of 305
kilograms of cocaine. That year, a van travelling eastbound on Highway
1 in the Fraser Valley was stopped and 170 kilograms of the illegal
drug were found.

That seizure led police back to a house on East 5th in Vancouver,
where 135 kilograms of cocaine was found.

Shortly after, Burnaby's Eugene and Michelle Uyeyama were murdered in
their home, followed by the 1996 massacre of five on a Matsqui farm.

Paulsen said that when the integrated police group began looking into
the murders a couple of years ago, they believed the deaths were
associated with drug trafficking and began looking at people suspected
of being involved in organized crime.

Last summer, the murder investigation resulted in the arrest of Robert
Bruce Moyes for the Burnaby and Abbotsford murders. He has pleaded
guilty and is serving life in prison. Mark Therrien is awaiting trial
for the Abbotsford murders, while Sal Ciancio is before the courts for
the Burnaby deaths.

In this recent round of drug charges, Ciancio was also charged with
conspiring to traffic cocaine in connection to the 1995 seizures that
were the starting point of this lengthy investigation.

Paulsen says these arrests are an example of the importance of an
integrated approach by police to efficiently undermine the networked
structure used by organized crime groups.
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