RICHMOND GANG 'LIEUTENANTS' ARRESTED

'We've Chopped The Head Off The Snake. We've Got Right To The Top On
This One'

Six Richmond residents have been arrested and at least two properties
here seized in what police describe as one of the biggest organized
crime busts in B.C. history.

The arrests were part of a major multi-jurisdictional investigation
that has resulted in 36 arrests in Canada, the U.S. and Australia,
including Yong Long Ye of Vancouver -- the alleged kingpin of an
international drug smuggling ring.

"We've chopped the head off the snake," Insp. Dean Robinson of the
Vancouver Police Department said at a joint press conference on
Annacis Island Wednesday. "We've got right to the top on this one."

Richmond residents arrested in the sweep are: Changsheng "Jason" Wang,
De Jun "Darren" Zhu, Ching Hsiang "George" Hsieh, Guang An, Guo Hua
Liao and Kevin Ken Mah.

They face a litany of charges related to drug trafficking. Most are in
custody, along with Ye, awaiting bail hearings in Vancouver, while
some have been released on their own recognizance, police said.

Insp. Pat Fogarty of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit
(CSFEU) described some of the Richmond suspects as highly placed
within the criminal network Ye allegedly controls.

"They're lieutenants, we allege, for Mr. Ye," Fogarty said. "He had
some significant people down there."

Behind a display of drugs, guns and cash, police representing several
local and international agencies -- including the American Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) -- boasted of having taken out a
major lynchpin in the international drug smuggling community and
hitting him where it hurts most -- in the pocketbook.

Following a 14-month investigation, police made a series of arrests
last week. In the process, they seized 17 handguns and prohibited
weapons, $2.1 million in cash, nine homes worth at least $6 million,
three cars worth $300,000 and drugs police estimate to have a
wholesale value of $101 million and a street value of $168 million.

Seized narcotics include: 600 kilograms of cocaine, 111 kilograms of
methamphetamine, 1,200 kilograms of raw materials for making drugs, 83
kilograms of ecstasy and 26 "units" of heroin.

Two of the properties seized include a condo in a high-rise at 8831
Lansdowne Rd. (at the corner of Garden City Road), and a home at 5088
Calder Court in Richmond, just east of Railway Avenue and south of
Blundell Road.

A title search shows the home on Calder Court to be registered to Yin
Fen Cheung. No one was home to answer the door Wednesday afternoon.
Fogarty said the properties seized by police would not typically be
registered in Ye's name.

"He would buy a house in a nominee situation, where he would have it
put it in his mother's name or his aunt's name or a friend's name," he
said. "But it's really his house." Asked if some of the suspects could
face deportation, Fogarty said one of the suspects arrested in
Vancouver -- Minh Tan Le -- is wanted in the U.S. and is now the
subject of extradition proceedings.

"What happens with the other countries in terms of seeking
extradition, etcetera, has yet to be determined," Fogarty said.

The recent raids were the result of an investigation that started in
October 2006 with a tip from the DEA in southern California.

Working with the DEA and police agencies in Australia, China, Taiwan,
Japan and New Zealand, the CFSEU managed to crack a smuggling circle
that Fogarty said was controlled by an "impressive command and control
system."

"We couldn't have asked for better cooperation, better results," Matt
Ryan of the DEA said of the multi-jurisdictional bust.

"The police investigation in this case demonstrates that the police
aren't confined to various jurisdictional borders," said Marianne
Ryan, chief officer of the CFSEU.

Although the drug smuggling ring is believed to be controlled by
organized crime, police could not name the various gangs involved.

"They're not like the Hell's Angels," Fogarty said. "They're not going
to put patches on their backs."

The network saw drugs like cocaine shipped to Toronto in trucks.
Couriers would then bring cash from Toronto to Vancouver, where,
police allege, Ye's organization would then ship methamphetamine to
Australia.

Proceeds from the sale of the drug there would then go to China into
38 small "nominee" accounts. The money then came back to Ye's
organization, police allege.

In a three-month period alone, police estimate couriers, posing as
tourists, carried $4.6 million in cash between Toronto and Vancouver.