FBI Links Cocaine to Canuck Trucks

LOS ANGELES — A series of huge coke busts in the U.S. have prompted federal investigators to link Mexican coke production to some Canadian truckers.

In an affidavit accompanying a huge drug bust in California last week, FBI Special Agent Jennifer Rudy wrote “typically, tractor trailer trucks are used to move the cocaine from Southern California, where it is brought in from Mexico, into Canada.”

Her observations date back to three drug busts earlier this year.

In one case, they were investigating a big coke deal and while searching a certain Mazda car, they found $600,000 and a blackberry with hundreds of messages to some guy named “Buddy”, in Quebec, who was looking to buy cocaine.

Then in August, FBI near Las Vegas found 205 kilos of coke worth $16.4 million worth of coke in a truck bearing Quebec tags. That was the second-largest seizure of its kind in Nevada.

The driver, a Quebec resident, was charged with possession and trafficking offences and he has pleaded not guilty.

On September 27, New York State Police stopped a Quebec-domiciled truck and found $4.5 million worth of coke. The driver, also from Quebec, faces charges of possession with the intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine.

None of the charges against the men have been proven in court.

A 2010 RCMP criminal intelligence report said cocaine is the most common contraband found on trucks coming into Canada.

The Canada Border Services Agency reports that there have been 41 seizures of cocaine this year from commercial and personal vehicles, with an estimated value of almost $25 million.

(Editor’s Note: This article has been updated from a previous version.)