United Nations gang leader Clay Roueche was like a multinational entrepreneur, expanding his lucrative drug empire across North America with a combination of corporate ingenuity and violence.
He earned premier status in the criminal underworld by overseeing “the movement of tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana, thousands of kilograms of cocaine and millions of U.S. dollars,” U.S. prosectors say.
For that reason, the B.C. man should spend the next 30 years behind bars when he is sentenced in a Seattle courtroom in December, the U.S. Attorney says in more than 60 pages of just-filed court documents.
“His organization was equal parts corporate and violent,” says the sentencing memo, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Susan Roe and Roger Rogoff.
“He used private airplanes, float planes, helicopters, cars, semi-trucks and coded BlackBerry telephones to create a secret and successful organization that he planned to extend into the Far East and South America. He employed pilots, drug couriers and money transporters to carry out the objectives of his organization.”
The documents quote former associates of Roueche, who cooperated with U.S. officials, saying he threatened to kill people who wanted out. One said Roueche claimed he had beaten someone with “dull machetes.”
“His organization has used any means necessary to carry out this goal, including threats and violence.”
Roe and Rogoff said Roueche “worked hard, with laudable organizational skills coupled with an attention to detail, to achieve the moniker “˜drug lord.’
“The affidavits of the various cooperators paint the picture of a controlled, powerful man who appeared willing to take whatever necessary steps in order to continue his lucrative drug-trafficking business.”
Roueche, 34, entered a surprise guilty plea last April to conspiring to smuggle cocaine and marijuana, as well as money laundering. He was to be sentenced Nov. 5, but on Wednesday the hearing was postponed until mid-December because his lawyer requested more time.
The documents say the UN founder “was the public face of this violent, quasi-corporate group, and led its drug trafficking endeavours.”
“The group used guns, threats and violence to keep its contracted workers and gang members in line and to ensure that no one informed on the group’s activities,” Roe and Rogoff said.
“The UN Gang is the type of organized, sophisticated drug trading group that presents a significant danger to the safety, peace and security of the United States.”
The sophisticated law enforcement probe that led to Roueche’s downfall is laid out in the sentencing documents.
“Using customary investigative techniques, routine arrests and seizures, confidential informants, undercover agents, recorded phone calls, a consensual wire intercept, search warrants, physical surveillance, electronic surveillance and inter-agency cooperation as well as other sophisticated law enforcement techniques, a multitude of federal law enforcement agencies undertook to dismantle or disrupt the organization,” the documents say.
Roueche was nabbed in May 2008 as he attempted to attend a gang meeting in Mexico. Mexican authorities – tipped off about his criminal connections – turned Roueche away and he was forced onto a flight that landed in Texas, where an warrant was executed.
Roe and Rogoff say in their memo that they understand 30 years is “an extraordinary sentencing recommendation.”
“The government makes the recommendation because Clay Roueche is an extraordinarily dangerous, remorseless defendant, who committed extraordinarily serious crimes. He deserves this extraordinary sentence,” they said.
The breadth of the conspiracy as laid out in the court documents is startling.
U.S. agents “identified at least 15 helicopter landing sites on federal and state lands in Washington state that were being used by the UN gang for drug and human smuggling,” the documents say.
The agents believe Roueche spearheaded over several years the shipment of at least 2,000 pounds of B.C. bud a month into the U.S. and the movement into Canada of 200 pounds of cocaine per month.
“This sort of criminality dramatically increases the United States’ illicit drug supply by causing Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking organizations to smuggle more cocaine,” Special Agent Peter Ostrovsky said in an affidavit.
“In all, the investigation resulted in the seizure of 2,169 pounds of Canadian marijuana, 335 kilograms of cocaine, $2,033,388 in U.S. currency, two pounds of crack cocaine, four pounds of methamphetamine, and five firearms,” Roe said. “In addition, agents conducted the undercover delivery of $748,460 in U.S. currency at the direction of Roueche.”
U.S. investigators got help from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit-B.C. after Roueche’s arrest in Texas.
The CFSEU information highlights Roueche’s leadership role in the organization and “his use of violence within the gang is clear from two different themes,” the sentencing memo says.
Intercepted conversations of Roueche’s dad Rupert indicated his son’s “long-running role in drug-trafficking.”
The U.S. Attorney says a Roueche letter intercepted from jail indicates “he simply wishes to continue supporting his organization until he can get out and pick up where he left off.”
The letter was addressed to his mother, but began “To my Bro’s [sic],” the documents say.
“Roueche spends two handwritten pages re-dedicating himself to his gang. He muses about the “˜hella cool’ cellmates he had in the Federal Detention Center, commenting that he closely listened to their stories because he has, “˜a big thirst for knowledge.’ “
The memo said Roueche was impressed by one cellmate because he had “crazy tatts and bullet wounds everywhere as well as stacks of charges LOL.”
“Roueche simply shows no desire to walk away from the very people with whom he surrounded himself during his crimes,” Roe and Rogoff said. “His behaviour and his letters evince a continuing need to lead his “˜crew’ and return to the drug trafficking he has lived for the past several years. He does not show a need or an inclination to change.”
Roueche deserves to spend three decades in jail because of the “creativity, toughness, and intelligence required to build and maintain an illegal organization the size of the UN gang.”
“Roueche has travelled the world to find new sources of supply and new potential markets for his drugs. He is worldly and charismatic. Unfortunately, he has chosen to use these traits in a manner that serves to hurt the people of the United States on as grand a scale as possible,” the memo says.
“Roueche’s participation in the distribution of drugs in this country has fuelled the destruction of countless addicts, has destroyed countless relationships, and has broken up countless families…Roueche is a unique drug dealer. He deserves a unique sentence among drug dealers.”
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