Trucking in meth: How smugglers sneak the destructive drug into Winnipeg

Allan Rodney was never alone on the open road, police allege bags of illicit drugs were treated like his passengers.

Court records say Rodney, a72-year-oldlong-haul trucker from Surrey, B.C., made frequent trips into Winnipeg over a period ofmonths to unload the legal freight he was supposed to shipand the illicit drugs he wasn't.

Police believe suchtrips area snapshot of how the methamphetamine infiltrating Winnipeg's streets has arrived here a problem one former gang investigator says is akin to a flood police are trying to stop with a finger in a dike.

Rodney, along with fellow driver Shontal Vaupotic, 32, would travel more than 2,000 kilometres each way, likea team, the court records allege. They usually travelled tothe Prairie cityonce a week, sometimestwice.

On rare occasions, they'd visit Winnipeg using the semi-trailer of their legitimate employer with nothing but illicit drugs to deliver, the documents say.

Before their arrest last October after a 10-month investigation dubbed Project Riverbank,police allege Rodney and Vaupotic were smugglers part of what investigators say was a major western Canadian drug-trafficking operationshipping a cheap, highly addictive drug that's being brought into Winnipeg in disturbing quantities.

The drug's proliferation has been tied to a disturbing spike in crime and violence that underscores the strain police and emergency services are facing.

Unlike a decade ago, when the drug's presence in the city was comparatively small, the methnow sold in Winnipeg is mostly manufactured elsewhere, which means it's being brought into the city somehow.

You name the mode of transportation and it's probably being used, saysInsp. Max Waddell of the Winnipeg Police Service's organized crime unit.

"That's to elude detection," he said. "If they're always changing their game, it makes it very difficult for us to just focus or concentrate on one particular method."

He previously called the dismantling of what police say was asophisticated smuggling ringthrough Project Riverbanka major blowto the city's drug supply.

The operation resultedin the seizureof nearly $3 million worth of drugs and other property, including a semi. Eleven people were arrested and face more than 160 charges.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Mexican cartels

Police believe much of the city'smethamphetamine is concocted byMexican drug cartels, Waddell said. The product is shipped along theWest Coast toward the United States, and thenentersBritish Columbia by land, sea or air. It is then transported east toward centres like Winnipeg.

The United States has tracked the production of meth in that country, and the Drug Enforcement Administration notes that while most of the U.S. supply is smuggled inthrough Mexico,domestic production last yearreachedits lowest levelsince 2000.

It's like trying to put your finger ona hole in a dam. There's just so many ways they can get it in.- Former gang investigatorDoug Spencer

In Canada, meth is being imported and distributed bynetworks of organized criminals who know what they're doing, police say.

"They have channels and they've established themselves, no different than a company that is across Western Canada," Waddell said. "It's the same principle."

"From our sources and our intelligence, the majority comes from British Columbia and then comes east to Manitoba," Waddellsaid, but some makesits waythrough Ontario from the east.

Doug Spencer, a former gang investigator with the Vancouver Police Department, said his city is a hotspotfor the distribution of drugs. He said trying to impedethat flow is an onerous task.

"It's like trying to put your finger ona hole in a dam. There's just so many ways they can get it in, right?They smuggle it inside human beings as well."

He said Vancouver gangsters have tolookelsewhere to sell because the city is oversaturated withopioids. That could explainthe ring Project Riverbank busted, Spencer said.

The alleged ringleader, Mohammad Khan, has ties with the Independent Soldiers street gang in B.C. and the Wolfpack an alliance of the Independent Soldiers, Hells Angels and Red Scorpions,court records say.

Spencer said police in the Prairies have thankfully established interdiction units to catch drug smugglers en route.

"A single young male by himself from Vancouver, driving a motorhome out to Manitoba a couple of times a monthyou don't have to be a policeman to figure out something'sgoing on," he said.

"It's investigating, it's being a police officer, being sharp and picking that stuff off. But you're not even barely scratching the surface."

Few ways to stop drug's entry

Drug mules often crossprovincial boundarieswithout any impediment, Spencer says.

"There's nobody there. There's no checks there."

The transformation of big-rig driversintosmugglers brings disrepute to the trucking industry, said Manan Gupta, who runsRoad Todaya national trucking publication primarily catering to the South Asian community.

I don't believe anyone is fully forced to be carriers of these illicit drugs. They're doing it likely for the same reason that drug dealers are in business: it's to make profits.- Winnipeg police Insp. Max Waddell

He isn't surprised that criminals have infiltrated the trucking industry. Sometimes, driversare unwittinglydrawn into smuggling, butoften greed, money troubles or their own naivetyare to blame, he said.

"Many scenarios, you know, people know what they're doing," he said. "They just get caught at the wrong time and the wrong place."

Gupta said newcomers to the country are more susceptible to the charms ofexperienced drug traffickers. Before long, they're doing the bidding of criminalsandthey're trapped.

In a number ofCanadiancourt casesinvolvingdrug importation, however, defence attorneys have maintained their clients were blind to the illicit cargo discreetlystored in their freight.

Waddellfinds that explanation hard to believe.

"I don't believe anyone is fully forced to be carriers of these illicit drugs. They're doing it likely for the same reason that drug dealers are in business: it's to make profits."

And money is directly behind the rise inmethuse in Winnipeg, he said, with theprice of the drug crateringfrom $60,000 per kilogramin 2016to around $17,000 today.

Priced to sell

Since it's so cheap, local dealers don't bother with homemade recipes.

"You avoid less detection if you can just purchase the product at such a low cost than to try and elude police and try [to] figure out how to manufacture this product," Waddell said.

Even the odd time that thevehicles are intercepted, it'sa small fraction of probably what's coming and going.- MitchBourbonniere

MitchBourbonniererunsa program calledOgijitaPimatiswinKinamatwin,which works to help at-risk Winnipeggers stay out of gangs. He says dealers are following the principle they can sell in volume by sellingcheap.

"If you just lower your prices andmake the money off of volume, you're going to make it," he said.

LikeWaddell, the social workersays there are many lone agents doling outmethwho aren't otherwise engaged in the drug trade. They've found an opening in the industry because the demand is so high, Bourbonniere said.

He's frustrated there are few means to prevent methfrom entering Winnipeg.If he had his way, the justice system would mete out stronger penalties against convictedsmugglers and dealers.

"So much traffic comes in and out of our province,it would be impossible to track all of that for law enforcement," he said.

"Even the odd time that thevehicles are intercepted, it'sa small fraction of probably what's coming and going."