Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 10, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free october 1995 a3 special report Anatomy of a take Down Trojan horse a look inside Winnipeg free press investigative reporter Paul Wiecek and photographer Marc Gallant were Given an unprecedented look behind the scenes of this weekends bust of a multimillion Dollar smuggling net work in southwestern heres an inside look at How it went its 2 sunday and More than 40 ramp and Canada Cus Toms officers have assembled in a briefing room at the ramps Portage Avenue Headquarters to plot the next couple of critical after four months of investigation and an investment of More than in manpower and a huge smuggling investigation dubbed opera Tion decode has come Down to in the coming a Convoy of officers will drive two hours from Winnipeg to the Pembina where they will Roll in under cover of darkness and Cli Max the largest police operation of its Type in the history of Mani there Are seven people the offi cers want to arrest and 29 search warrants to and they have a Trojan it is an Eclectic group of Law enforcement officers who Assem ble in the ramp parking lot an hour mixed in with clearcut uni formed ramp and customs offi cers Are a Motley group of Pony tailed undercover on any other these two groups of officers would have Little to do with each but police Are throwing everything Treyve got at a net work of smugglers they believe has been smuggling liquor and tobacco for the past rack ing up millions of dollars in lost tax revenues for the Federal and provincial police have chosen the most unlikely of nights the night before thanksgiving to stage the there Are huge Over time dollars associated with Stag ing an operation like this on such a the smugglers know that exactly Why the Moun ties cannot help but be confident As they hit the no one is expecting us to be working on thanksgiving week one officer and that exactly Why were working this by the Convoy has made its Way to a deserted strip of Highway just North of Manitou and along the Way they have picked up an extra a Large moving truck rented at a local car its their Trojan four All heavily Are transferred into the Back of the truck under the glow of a Southern Manitoba full that where they will spend the rest of their shivering in the surrounded by com plete darkness and taking every bump on the Road directly to the they have one task in this operation the arrest of a Snowflake Paul Wiecek Marc Gallant Marc free press ramp Wyman Sangster holds booze seized in Man who allegedly sold illegal liquor several times to a paid informant during operation the informant has set up one last buy for this its a big one cases of hard liquor and 50 cases of its a Load so big no smuggler would think twice if his buyer showed up with a huge truck to cart it away at least not until it was too fifteen minutes the Tro Jan horse separates from the rest of the Convoy and is on its Way to meet the target for the scheduled 6 the informant is in the Passen Ger seat and the Driver is an undercover in the the four mounties can do nothing but wait and Shiv parts of the rest of the Convoy head off in their own directions to carry out their the remainder sits on an empty stretch of Highway North of their Job is to wait for word the target has been busted and then get to the scene As quickly As possible to secure it and Deal with any timing is of the essence because while this bust is going so Are six and any Gap in time could mean some or All of the other suspects have time to get that a very real the officers Treyve Learned from previous buys that their target has helpers who cruise the highways outside of town with a cellular phone while the buys Are going any sign of police will result in a phone Call to the telling him to scrap a huge Deal the mounties have been building up to for four so the Convoy sits by the Side of the waiting and by the officers in the waiting Convoy Are they Haven been running their engines for an hour and a the running lights would have been a dead Giveaway on this quiet and the bitter cold of the night has now seeped into every sleep should come easily but there is an air of the Deal should have gone Down Long but still the Convoy has not gotten the Call it was waiting officers wonder aloud whether theres been a there after turning Over to the the Man had the informant and his Friend drive the Trojan horse to an abandoned farm just outside of town and had them Back it into an abandoned the target then went around removed a Sheet of Metal from the shed and gave the informant his first look at 150 cases of liquor hidden behind the shed in tall grass and under a camouflage then he had the informant open up the Back of the All hell broke four mounties leaped from the shotguns and the Man gave himself up under Over whelming he had Only one thing to say to police As he glared at the informant you have a Good Friend smuggling liquor was easy continued from a1 they said the liquor was easily smuggled into Canada across the numerous a patrolled Fields that Dot the Border just a couple of kilo South of offi cers said the smugglers would simply Load up trailers in North then drive the loads into Canada behind Al terrain vehicles or buyers of the smuggled liquor we rent always getting what they bargained investigators officers found Sev eral plastic liquor bottles during the investigation that had been tampered ramp Wyman Sangster Sangster said a syringe was used to punch a Hole in the Bottom of the then from on Quarter to on third of the contents were siphoned the liquor was replaced with what ramp believe was Home made the Hole in the bottle was glued Over and the bottle was sold to unsuspecting buy the siphoned contents were placed in old empty bottles and also he Sangster said the tampering Cre ated a Public health Hazard and Dis proves a widely held perception that liquor smuggling is a victim less were not just talking about lost tax Money Sangster who knows where those syringes had been who knows what they had put in those bottles investigators said police suspected the existence of the smug gling network for years but had been unable to penetrate it because those involved were wary of out siders and used counter surveil Lance measures whenever they did the break in the Case came when an informant who had done Busi Ness with the smugglers agreed to work for the mounties in Exchange for investigators refused to say How much the informant was paid but Sangster said the Cost of the entire investigation was Over All those arrested were charged under the excise act with Selling smuggled charged Are Richard Kenneth of the pm of two counts Melvin Wesley and his wife Marlene of la Riv two counts Armand Joseph of 14 counts Edward Joseph of the pm of six counts Lynes also of the pm of three investigators said charges Are also pending and will Likely be Laid today against another Scott and Levreault were both being held in the remand Centre last the remainder of those arrested were released on if police said those arrested could end up facing Mil Lions of dollars in fines and unpaid Federal duty and taxes on the liquor and under the provincial tobacco tax the province could also go after the alleged smugglers for unpaid duty on the tobacco seized in the but officers said the provincial liquor control act does not have a provision allowing the province to seek payment of the unpaid provincial taxes on the smuggled they said it is a costly hard liquor has a provincial tax of 40 cents an ounce on meaning that potentially hundreds of thou Sands of dollars will go in recon ered by the Marc free press suspects in smuggling operation Are taken into lockup in Winnipeg by ramp 1995 Swift m3 lease for 169 88 Standard dual dual Side Impact 4 front rear crumple 3 pm 5 planned service available Abs and so much More based on 60 mos lease Mac plus Frt Phi taxes 0 no Secu 810 Regent ave 2225273 ast Kelly Johnston d prudes Nib Stew s0iss a555 a 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