Colin Martin, a 46-year-old father of six from Malakwa, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Martin was one of five Canadian men caught up in ‘Operation Blade Runner’, a multi-agency sting operation set up to bust cross-border drug smuggling.
Martin admitted to supplying the helicopters that were used to transport drugs between the U.S. and Canada.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said it will ask for no more than 10 years in prison at Martin’s sentencing in June. The charge comes with a 5 to 40 year possible prison term.
Officers seized 240,000 ecstasy pills, 175 kg of cocaine and 358 kg of marijuana during the operation.
Then-U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan conceded, “This organization has been responsible for a much larger amount of drugs than what we were able to seize.”
Seizures took place in Washington, Idaho, Utah, California and Nelson, B.C.
One of his pilots, Sam Lindsay-Brown, took his own life after flying into a law-enforcement trap in 2009, when federal agents met him when he landed in a remote clearing in northeastern Washington
state.
Martin fought extradition on the charges for almost a decade, finally losing arguments and surrendering in December 2017.
“Mr. Martin applied for judicial review of the Minister’s surrender order on the ground that her decision was unreasonable because in the indictment United States prosecuting authorities, for no valid purpose, placed his life at risk by identifying him as a would-be informant and by including statements about his control of the drug trade in and out of British Columbia,” the summary posted by the Supreme Court of Canada stated. “Mr. Martin denied making the statements and claimed that conduct by the U.S. was abusive and would shock the conscience of Canadians.”
Martin believed the U.S. judicial system would be under-prepared to address his Métis heritage in sentencing and in imprisoning him, but the Supreme Court dismissed his argument.
Co-accused Sean Doak pleaded guilty to his involvement in 2016 and was sentenced to six years.
Adam Christian Serrano was sentenced to three years after pleading guilty in 2013.
James Gregory Cameron has also appealed his extradition.
Sam Brown, a helicopter pilot caught by U.S. officials flying marijuana into the U.S., hung himself in a Spokane Jail in 2009 after his arrest.
Pilot Jeremy Snow was murdered in 2013 alongside his girlfriend Tiffany Goruk in West Kelowna. No one has been arrested in their deaths.
Snow pleaded guilty to smuggling marijuana and cocaine via helicopter, was sentenced to 46 months in jail and transferred to a B.C. jail in 2011.
Martin, a former forestry worker, told Global News in 2007 he started up in the drug trade when his dad asked him to sell a 4.5 kg package of marijuana back in the 1990’s. He soon became the head of the family run export business.
After being convicted on other drug charges in 2007, he told Global News, “It’s unfortunate people are being subjected to incarceration for these types of crimes.”
“Maybe the law will change, who knows,” Martin wondered at the time.
Martin remains in U.S. detention awaiting sentencing in June.
With notes from the Associated Press
Comments