Three British Columbians accused of building a tunnel under the border to smuggle drugs into the United States are part of a network of organized crime that rivals the Hells Angels, RCMP Inspector Pat Fogarty alleged yesterday.
The Hells Angels is widely regarded as the benchmark for organized crime, Insp. Fogarty said in an interview. But the bikers are well known mainly because they identify themselves with patches on their back, he said.
“The reality is, there are many, many more, involved in activities that are far more lucrative, and they have decided to keep themselves completely out of the limelight,” Insp. Fogarty said.
“These guys are organized crime working together to make money, no different than what the Hells Angels are doing except they keep a very low profile,” he alleged.
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After an extensive international investigation, U.S. authorities arrested three British Columbians on Thursday on charges of conspiracy to distribute and import more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana into the United States through a well-constructed tunnel from a hut on the Canadian side of the border to a farmhouse on the U.S. side.
The accused have not responded publicly to the allegations yet.
Acquiring the properties and building the tunnel would have cost more than $1-million, Insp. Fogarty said. The 1.2-metre by 1.2-metre tunnel, running between one metre and three metres below the surface, was wired for lighting and included a sump pump to drain off water regularly and a mechanical winch to raise or lower cartloads of drugs. It is the first tunnel ever discovered on the Canada-U.S. border.
Insp. Fogarty, who led the RCMP's combined forces special enforcement unit during the investigation, said the police believe the people who constructed the tunnel associated with members of organized crime networks in B.C. that ship multimillion-dollar drug orders across the border.
“[The three accused] are very well known to police,” he said.
They do not operate as part of a gang, he added. “It's organized crime using the expertise of each other to create an infrastructure that allows them to do what they need to do,” he said.
Marijuana growers in B.C. operate independently of brokers who arrange markets in the United States for the drugs, he said. The truckers who transport the commodity are also independent.
“One day they woke up, or whatever, and they saw there was a market in moving product, a huge market,” he said. “What these guys decided to do, creatively, is construct a tunnel,” he alleged.
Police believe one of those arrested has some expertise in construction, another had access to financing, he said.