Drug smuggling earns five-year sentence for former Vancouver man: "Nen Angel Cruces, 23, was convicted in the same cross-border smuggling ring that saw North Vancouver's Krysta Edwards sentenced to five years late last month.
The pair and others were transporting the party drug BZP, as well as ecstasy, across the B.C.-Washington border where thety had a Bellingham storage facility rented and arranged shipments to the Chicago area by train.
BZP, which is often sold by B.C. gangs as ecstasy, is still legal in Canada, though it has been added to the banned list in the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand, Australia and other countries.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones told Cruces Friday that 'this court considers BZP to be a very dangerous drug.'
'If you walk around the city of Seattle, you will see the many young people and kids who are suffering from addiction to drugs as a result of their use of ecstasy and BZP. By bringing in hundreds of thousands of pills into this country, you bear some responsibility for that,' Jones said.
In April 2009, authorities learned that Cruces had made a dozen trips across the border to the U.S. between August 2008 and April 2009 in tandem with Edwards, who had been given a Ford Explorer with a hidden compartment in December 2008.
The ring smugglged loads of about 50,000 pills each time."
The pair and others were transporting the party drug BZP, as well as ecstasy, across the B.C.-Washington border where thety had a Bellingham storage facility rented and arranged shipments to the Chicago area by train.
BZP, which is often sold by B.C. gangs as ecstasy, is still legal in Canada, though it has been added to the banned list in the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand, Australia and other countries.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones told Cruces Friday that 'this court considers BZP to be a very dangerous drug.'
'If you walk around the city of Seattle, you will see the many young people and kids who are suffering from addiction to drugs as a result of their use of ecstasy and BZP. By bringing in hundreds of thousands of pills into this country, you bear some responsibility for that,' Jones said.
In April 2009, authorities learned that Cruces had made a dozen trips across the border to the U.S. between August 2008 and April 2009 in tandem with Edwards, who had been given a Ford Explorer with a hidden compartment in December 2008.
The ring smugglged loads of about 50,000 pills each time."
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