The Associated Press
VANCOUVER, B.C. - British Columbia police have broken an international crime ring that produced fake credit cards and smuggled hundreds of pounds of marijuana into Washington state.
Arrest warrants have been issued for 12 members of the so-called Big Circle Boys gang, the Organized Crime Agency of British Columbia said.
Police said the Vancouver-based Big Circle Boys organization involved Vietnamese marijuana producers who provided drugs to Chinese exporters to be transported into the state. Investigators intercepted three such shipments of marijuana. Police have confiscated millions of dollars worth of drugs and false credit cards.
The investigation began in January 2000, initially into a large-scale, cross-border counterfeit credit-card scheme, the Organized Crime Agency said. But police quickly learned the operation also involved smuggling large amounts of marijuana into the state from a Vancouver Island marina.
Vietnamese marijuana producers based in Vancouver provided the marijuana to Chinese exporters, who arranged for the marine transport and then delivered the drugs to distributors in Seattle and Bellingham, the agency said.
After the second marijuana shipment was seized in October 2000, the Chinese exporters mistakenly thought one of their couriers had stolen the load, the agency said.
It was determined that the courier and his wife and children, who lived in Atlantic City, N.J., were in danger, so the agency contacted the Atlantic City police and the FBI.
A short time later in Atlantic City, two men who had just flown from Vancouver were arrested on the courier’s doorstep.
The agency said Wednesday that one of the Chinese exporters has been charged with counseling a person to commit murder.
In January and February 2001, several residences and businesses in Vancouver and suburban Richmond were searched. Police seized marijuana worth at least $2 million (U.S.) plus 3,000 Ecstasy pills and $300,000 in Canadian and U.S. currency.