- Reaction score
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Here, in an article reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from today’s Globe and Mail, is a story about Freddie
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080922.wBust0923/BNStory/National/home
Navy's 'stalker of the seas' nabs drug boat
OLIVER MOORE
Globe and Mail Update
September 22, 2008 at 9:43 PM EDT
HALIFAX — The ship's motto is “stalker of the seas,” and she lived up to her reputation during a joint police-military bust that netted 751 kilograms of cannabis resin.
The 134-metre-long frigate Fredericton was running without lights as she edged toward her quarry before dawn Sunday off the eastern shore of Nova Scotia. The ship had sneaked close enough for navy Commander Bob Auchterlonie to think, “pretty nice sailboat,” before police officers swarmed the target vessel from small boats.
“To be sailing a boat and to find a 5,000-tonne warship very close and people in black jumping into your boat, I would say ‘surprised' is a good description,” Cdr. Auchterlonie said yesterday.
The vessel officers boarded an ocean-going sailboat suspected of carrying the drugs to a remote area near Spanish Ship Bay, about 170 kilometres east of Halifax.
“We were there waiting,” said RCMP spokesman Sergeant Mark Gallagher, describing a co-operative operation that also included a military patrol plane and a Coast Guard vessel. Four people on board the 14-metre sailboat and eight others on shore were arrested. The suspects, who ranged in age from 26 to 78, faced drug charges yesterday in a Dartmouth court. All of the suspects are from outside the province. One is a foreign national and the others are Canadian.
The sailboat allegedly brought vacuum-sealed packages of the resin up from the Caribbean, and, while still at sea, the drugs were shifted to a nine-metre “go-fast boat” for transport to land. A twin-engine speedboat, a powerful vessel that looks like a scaled-down version of the cigarette boats made famous a generation ago by drug runners, was seized by police. The “mother ship” also was impounded, as was another small vessel and six vehicles.
Police believe the drugs were headed to Southern Ontario for distribution through a pipeline established by an organized-crime group with national reach. They would not say which group they suspected but, in response to a question, ruled out the Italian mob, outlaw bikers and Chinese triads.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Brian Brennan said it was the largest bust of cannabis resin, also known as hash oil, that he could recall in the area. But he said there's no doubt the rugged coastline of the province makes it attractive to smugglers.
“I wouldn't say it's regular, but we've had importation cases in the east coast before,” he said yesterday.
The same part of the province was the site of another big drug bust four years ago. In that incident, officers seized 500 kilograms of cocaine after boarding a 15-metre sailboat off the eastern shore.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080922.wBust0923/BNStory/National/home
Navy's 'stalker of the seas' nabs drug boat
OLIVER MOORE
Globe and Mail Update
September 22, 2008 at 9:43 PM EDT
HALIFAX — The ship's motto is “stalker of the seas,” and she lived up to her reputation during a joint police-military bust that netted 751 kilograms of cannabis resin.
The 134-metre-long frigate Fredericton was running without lights as she edged toward her quarry before dawn Sunday off the eastern shore of Nova Scotia. The ship had sneaked close enough for navy Commander Bob Auchterlonie to think, “pretty nice sailboat,” before police officers swarmed the target vessel from small boats.
“To be sailing a boat and to find a 5,000-tonne warship very close and people in black jumping into your boat, I would say ‘surprised' is a good description,” Cdr. Auchterlonie said yesterday.
The vessel officers boarded an ocean-going sailboat suspected of carrying the drugs to a remote area near Spanish Ship Bay, about 170 kilometres east of Halifax.
“We were there waiting,” said RCMP spokesman Sergeant Mark Gallagher, describing a co-operative operation that also included a military patrol plane and a Coast Guard vessel. Four people on board the 14-metre sailboat and eight others on shore were arrested. The suspects, who ranged in age from 26 to 78, faced drug charges yesterday in a Dartmouth court. All of the suspects are from outside the province. One is a foreign national and the others are Canadian.
The sailboat allegedly brought vacuum-sealed packages of the resin up from the Caribbean, and, while still at sea, the drugs were shifted to a nine-metre “go-fast boat” for transport to land. A twin-engine speedboat, a powerful vessel that looks like a scaled-down version of the cigarette boats made famous a generation ago by drug runners, was seized by police. The “mother ship” also was impounded, as was another small vessel and six vehicles.
Police believe the drugs were headed to Southern Ontario for distribution through a pipeline established by an organized-crime group with national reach. They would not say which group they suspected but, in response to a question, ruled out the Italian mob, outlaw bikers and Chinese triads.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Brian Brennan said it was the largest bust of cannabis resin, also known as hash oil, that he could recall in the area. But he said there's no doubt the rugged coastline of the province makes it attractive to smugglers.
“I wouldn't say it's regular, but we've had importation cases in the east coast before,” he said yesterday.
The same part of the province was the site of another big drug bust four years ago. In that incident, officers seized 500 kilograms of cocaine after boarding a 15-metre sailboat off the eastern shore.
