MOUNTIES MAKE HUGE COKE BUST

RCMP Seize $160-million Shipment From Boat Off Cape Breton Coast

Arichat - RCMP say they stopped a $160-million cocaine shipment from
reaching shore near Arichat this month.

Four Quebec men were arrested onshore at about 4 a.m. on July 4 after
police intercepted a sailing ship that had made its way up the eastern
seaboard to a remote island beach off Richmond County.

Normand Denault, 40, and Luc St. Onge, 44, both of Gatineau, Julien
Loiselle, 36, of Montreal and Richard Tibault, 45, of Aylmer were
immediately taken to a police plane and flown to Kingston, Ont., where
charges of importing drugs, money laundering and possession of items
obtained through the proceeds of crime were laid.

The stash - 595 kilograms of cocaine - is in RCMP hands in Ontario where
the suspects are in jail awaiting trial. The force wouldn't say where the
drugs were intercepted or how.

Two other Quebec residents - Sandra St. Onge, 47, of Gatineau and Richard
Rivers, 40, of Cantley - along with a pair of suspects in the Turks and
Caicos were also charged with similar offences in their hometowns.

Sgt. Ken McKinnon, head of the RCMP's Cape Breton drug unit, said the bust
resulted from a two-year investigation after 450 kilograms of marijuana was
seized in Cape Breton.

"One of the guys is one of the biggest importers of drugs in Canada," Sgt.
MacKinnon said. "They were travelling down here to meet the sailboat that
was supposed to deliver the drugs to shore.

"They are connected to organized crime in Canada."

Other police forces, both foreign and domestic, also assisted in breaking
the Canadian drug ring, which allegedly traded hard drugs in a variety of
countries, including Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, St. Lucia, the Turks and
Caicos, Trinidad and St. Vincent.

Sgt. McKinnon said Nova Scotia's sparsely populated coastline makes it a
haven for drug traffickers, but the Mounties' Coastal Watch program is
helping to drive them out.

"It's unbelievable what's out there for smugglers," he said. "There's so
many isolated places out there. These guys don't need a wharf, they can
bring up a sailboat and launch an inflatable zodiac from the ship and make
two quick trips onshore to unload."

Cpl. Fred Gallop - provincial co-ordinator of the Coastal Watch program
that involves hundreds of fishermen, yachters and others who live or work
near the sea - said a tender is about to be put out for construction of a
twin-engined high-speed catamaran that would patrol around the province and
in the nearby waters of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. The
catamaran, with a cruising speed of almost 45 kilometres per hour, is
expected to be ready by next year.

"The more eyes and ears we got out there and with the timely transmission
of information we get, the better it will be," Cpl. Gallop said. "We can't
do this alone."

The new vessel will likely be stationed in a strategic location like the
Strait of Canso.

People who notice any suspicious activity such as sailing vessels that
don't land before nightfall, requests to hire boats for excessive fees, or
signals flashing from ship to shore and back at night - as occurred in this
bust - are likely signs that trouble may be brewing offshore.

Tipsters may call 1-800-803-RCMP anonymously.

Sgt. McKinnon said that if the cocaine had been successfully offloaded,
near Janvrin Island, west of Arichat, it probably would have been trucked
to Quebec in rental vehicles and then eventually made its way back to the
streets of Cape Breton and elsewhere.

Police said the July 4 arrests were not related to arrests last week in
Halifax after a major drug raid.