High-seas takedown nets
1.5 tons cocaine and five local arrests

TORONTO, May 21 /CNW/ - Early this morning, members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Greater Toronto Area Drug Section arrested five people in the Greater Toronto Area and laid multiple charges of conspiracy to import a controlled substance into Canada. Simultaneous arrests were made in Colombia where two people were charged with similar conspiracy charges. The arrests and charges are in relation to a high-risk drug takedown that took place last week in international waters eleven hundred miles south west of Costa Rica in the Pacific Ocean.
The high-seas takedown resulted in the seizure of approximately 1,360 kilos of cocaine (approximately 3,000 pounds or 1.5 tons) and the arrest of the boat captain. The RCMP estimate this as the 5th largest single seizure of cocaine in Canadian history with a street value in its pure form of $136 million CDN. The RCMP also note that this is the largest seizure in the last ten years where the major players of a criminal organization have been successfully linked to the seizure and have been brought before the courts. This is a difficult link to make since the key players in drug trafficking networks take great pains to insulate themselves from the drugs.
The following are charged with conspiracy to import a controlled substance into Canada under Section 465(1)(c) of the Criminal Code of Canada.
Harold Craig BROWN, age 51, Queen Street North, Bolton, Ontario James Kenneth FROST, age 50, Ferris Road, East York, Ontario John Foster THOMPSON, age 50, Mountain Road, Caledon East, Ontario Murray Dennis MacDOWELL, age 57, West Oaks Trail, Oakville, Ontario Martin Joseph DONNELLY, age 42, Mullin Way, Burlington, Ontario Wesley James TRIMBLE, age 52, Vancouver Island, British Columbia was named as an unindicted co-conspirator along with two people from Colombia.
Mr. Trimble, who was the boat captain, was charged in Costa Rica and will be processed by the Costa Rican justice system. An arrest warrant has been issued for Ryan Todd PLACE, age 34, West Saanich Road, Victoria, British Columbia.
Police allege that the accused conspired to import massive amounts of cocaine into the Canadian market through Vancouver using a large ocean-going yacht. Police further allege that this criminal organization used Costa Rica as a staging area to keep their 'drug boat' out of sight and to conduct clandestine meetings.
"The success of this operation and how it came about is a giant step in our international fight against organized crime and drug trafficking," said Detective Inspector Ron Allen of the RCMP Greater Toronto Area Drug Section. "Once we identified the 'Canaian connection' of this criminal organization operating in Costa Rica, we contacted the United States, Costa Rican and Columbian law enforcement authorities for their assistance and they eagerly partnered with us in an investigation we code-named Project Outerlimits."
"It was through this collaboration that we were able to share intelligence and also get RCMP investigators 'on the ground' quickly in Costa Rica and Colombia to gather intelligence to 'connect the dots' that led to the successful conclusion of this investigation," added Inspector Allen, "The seeds of this criminal organization were planted in Canada, but we have weeded it out of the global landscape." "In shattering the infrastructure of this drug trafficking network, we have dismantled it at its highest level both nationally and internationally and have dealt a blow to drug trafficking at many levels," commented Inspector Allen.
"We have put a stop to their criminal activities in Canada; we have removed their ability to use another country as a staging ground for transporting drugs, and we have prevented a sizable supply of cocaine from reaching the streets of our communities." "This was a well-established criminal organization that had been operating in Canada for decades," added Inspector Allen.
"You can't have these kinds of international drug trafficking contacts without having been in the drug business for a long time." "The success of this operation was due to our collaboration with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the US-led Joint Inter-Agency Task Force, the Department of Administrative Security in Colombia, the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial in Costa Rica and the Agencia Federal De Investigations in Mexico," stated Inspector Allen.
"This was a 'best practise' of integrated policing on the international stage. It involved a team of law enforcement agencies from the country where the criminal organization was based as well as from the point of origin for the cocaine and from the country that the criminal network was using as a staging ground for their criminal activities - the common triangle of drug trafficking," added Inspector Allen.
"It is only through partnerships and co- operation among all countries affected by drug trafficking that we will successfully challenge organized crime on a global scale."