On 31 March 2004, United States authorities arrested more than 130 defendants across the country in early-morning raids ending a two-year Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation, dubbed Operation Candy Box, into a Canadian-based ring trafficking ecstasy and marijuana.[1] Officers executed about 35 search warrants in 16 US cities, from Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco to New York, Boston and Atlanta, while Canadian authorities were expected to execute about 50 further arrest warrants in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.[1]
The unsealed indictments named alleged ringleaders Ze Wai Wong, a Chinese national accused of leading drug distribution cells in 18 US cities and Canada, and Mai Phuong Le, a Vietnamese national accused of laundering the ring’s proceeds through money remitters and travel agencies.[1] The organization allegedly moved Canadian-grown marijuana, known locally as BC Bud, into the United States through command-and-control cells in Canada.[1]
By the day of the announcement investigators had seized 400,000 ecstasy tablets, 1,170 pounds of marijuana, 6.5 pounds of methamphetamine, 12 handguns and 5.9 million dollars.[1] A later Drug Enforcement Administration assessment put the investigation’s totals at 407,000 ecstasy tablets and 1,370 pounds of marijuana (about 621 kilograms), plus 46 weapons, 35 vehicles and 8.7 million dollars.[2] That assessment said the ring had distributed as many as one million ecstasy tablets a month over five years, about 15 percent of the ecstasy consumed in the United States.[2]
