WE'VE GOT HIM!

Alberta Mounties Nab One Of America's Most Wanted

Central Alberta RCMP ended a seven-year international manhunt yesterday,
capturing an American fugitive U.S. marshals call a "violent felon" with
links to the Hells Angels' drug network.

"He's a violent, violent felon. His propensity for violence is
extraordinary," deputy U.S. marshal David Drake, from Maine, told The
Sunday Sun yesterday.

"I've been hunting him for four years."

With the help of Calgary and Red Deer RCMP tactical teams, Innisfail
Mounties arrested Robert Michael Shimek, 29, a Minnesota native, without
incident at 5:30 a.m. on an acreage west of the town, said Sgt. Ed Plitz.

Drake, who said U.S. marshals issued their first warrant for Shimek in
1994, is ecstatic.

"They had to be very careful because he's vowed not to be taken alive, and
he'll splash law enforcement with the liquid LSD that he keeps on his
person," he said.

In 1998, Drake said police tracked down Shimek again after capturing three
of his alleged underlings as they crossed from Canada into the U.S. with a
stash of drugs and machine-guns.

Shimek allegedly made between $100,000 and $250,000 US a night selling the
drugs -- mainly hydroponically grown marijuana and LSD -- at rock concerts,
said Drake.

"And then he would backpack and drag millions of dollars back across the
border into Canada."

The trio's arrest eventually led to Shimek's indictment on weapons and
trafficking charges, and started Drake's dogged pursuit.

So far, Drake said his investigation has led to 22 arrests, including three
Canadians.

"Every day I would go to sleep at night thinking, 'What could I do next to
find him.' I would wake up in morning going, 'What am I going to do today.' "

Shimek, who had a tattoo of a bat on his right shoulder, was featured on
America's Most Wanted and federal agents say he had as many as 50 people
running drugs from Canada into the U.S.

Two of the machine-guns seized in the border arrests led police back to
Hells Angels in Montreal, Drake said.

Shimek allegedly split with the outlaw bikers in Quebec after they refused
to buy his hydroponic pot unless he agreed to sell their stock of cocaine
and heroin.

"Shimek was adamant about not touching those drugs. He just moved
operations from the East Coast to the West Coast."

After the indictment in 1998, Shimek fled to Vancouver, said Drake, and
waited for his friend and girlfriend to bring him his drugs and property.

That's when Ontario police intercepted the U-Haul in Thunder Bay loaded
with machine-guns, liquid LSD and drug paraphernalia, said Drake.

Shimek will be sent to Thunder Bay to face charges. If the Crown stays
them, he'll be punted from Canada to face a life sentence for "continuing
criminal enterprise" charges in Maine.