Canada Customs announced it had seized more than 1,700 kilograms of low-grade South American marijuana from a Vancouver-bound container ship in January.[1][2] Officers found 864 two-kilogram bricks of the drug hidden inside a shipping container of ground alfalfa from Ecuador aboard a cargo vessel that had originated in Peru.[1][2]
The ship, the Lykes Osprey, had stopped in Mexico, San Francisco and Seattle before reaching Vancouver.[1][2] Customs officers, who had flagged the container as high risk, examined 250 sacks of alfalfa with X-ray machines and handed the drugs to the Waterfront Organized Crime Unit.[1][2]
Sting at the farm
Investigators repacked and resealed the containers and kept them under surveillance.[1][2] On 19 February they watched the containers move to a farm on Deroche Landing Road in the Hatzic area of the Fraser Valley, and the next morning arrested six men driving away, one man by the roadside, one on the farm and two more in a Surrey restaurant.[1][2]
Four men were charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking: Timothy Andrew Murray, 52, of Surrey, Quoc Ai Mai, 27, of Richmond, Clayton Murray Mitchell, 30, of Surrey, and Robert James Shannon, 31, of no fixed address.[1][2] Shannon also faces two firearms counts, and police said one of the men is linked to an outlaw biker gang.[1][2]
