USCG Boarding Leads to 14 Year Prison Sentence for Hells Angel
This is a great payoff for some solid groundwork by a Washington USCG unit. Smuggling ring identified, drugs seized, and a long sentence for a member of the Hells Angels OMG. BZ.
A Washington State man was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 14 years in prison for smuggling $2 million of ecstasy he picked up by boat from an organized crime group in Canada. Christopher Walters, 41, of Ferndale, Washington, received the load of drugs from a co-conspirator in an isolated cove in the San Juan Islands, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. The drugs were delivered by jet ski from an organized crime group believed to be the Hells Angels, American officials said. At sentencing for conspiracy to distribute MDMA (ecstasy), U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said, “We need to have sentences that put people on notice in the U.S. and Canada that this conduct will not be tolerated.”
According to records filed in the case, Walters came to the attention of law enforcement in July 2009, when the U.S. Coast Guard stopped his 19-foot boat near Bellingham Bay for a safety inspection. “Walters and another man on the boat were escorted to the Coast Guard Station after they were found to have a personal use quantity of marijuana,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “Due to some suspicious statements and circumstances surrounding the boat, law enforcement officers noted its various movements. On July 17, 2009, Walters and two others took the boat on a trailer to a storage facility where they were observed unloading some duffle bags. A drug dog alerted to the storage locker. A court authorized search of the storage locker revealed more than 100,000 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) and BZP.” Over the next few days co-conspirators were arrested. Walters went into hiding, but was arrested Sept. 12, 2009, at his girlfriend’s apartment. “Walters made statements to other co-conspirators that he was being paid $30,000 per load to smuggle drugs for the Hells Angels organized crime group in Canada,” the Justice Department said.
Filed Under: Counter Narcotics • Crimes • News
