Bikers pose as truckers to traffic drugs: Report

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LANGLEY, B.C. — A Langley trucking company has been found to be linked to two men facing charges in the US as part of an international drug trafficking ring allegedly run by the Hells Angels, according to a story published by The Vancouver Sun.

 

Image Logistics was founded in 2002 by Robert J. Shannon, Richard Jansen, and Jody York, according to corporate documents obtained by The Sun. Both Shannon and Jansen are scheduled for trial in Seattle in February, charged with conspiracy to traffic drugs and money laundering related to a marijuana and cocaine smuggling ring alleged to have moved $19 million US worth of illicit product.

 

Another trucking company headed by Jansen – Scorpion Transport – was named in the US court papers, while Image Logistics was not, The Sun also reported. However, according to the story, some of the large shipments of pot are alleged to have been trucked across the B.C./Washington border by Shannon’s group when both he and Jansen were listed as vice-president and treasurer, respectively, of Image Logistics.

 

RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk said Shannon was associated with full-patch members of the Hells Angels in Vancouver, Haney and Mission.

 

Drugs were reportedly hidden inside hollowed-out logs on trucks, within the false walls of cargo containers and vehicles, within loads of commercial lumber, inside large PVC pipes and in the interior of a propane tanker.

 

Shannon and Quast crossed the border together last June to meet a contact at a Ferndale, Wash. burger joint, located just 23 km south of the Canadian border. The contact turned out to be an undercover agent taping the meeting, who subsequently alerted US drug enforcement.

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