Police in B.C., U.S., bust international cocaine and ecstacy operation

VANCOUVER – Police in British Columbia say they’ve charged six people, including one who is still at large, following an investigation into the trafficking of cocaine and ecstacy that spanned two continents.

The B.C.-based Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit is detailing its investigation, which ended in June 2009 but didn’t result in arrests until the past few weeks.

Sgt. Ghalib Bhayani (GAL’-ihb bah-YAN’-ee) says police in Canada were alerted in 2008 by American police about a drug trafficking operation between B.C., California, Mexico and Peru.

He says Canadian and American police worked together on a six-month investigation that culminated with search warrants in mid-2009, and by then police had seized 23 kilograms of ecstacy pills and more than 200 kilograms of cocaine.

Bhayani says six people from B.C. have been charged, but one of them, 42-year-old Khamla Wong, is still at large and believed to be overseas.

Bhayani says since the 2009 search warrants, police have been busy preparing evidence for Crown and working on other, parallel investigations, which is why the arrests didn’t happen until recently.