B.C. man pleads guilty in drug case
Cross-border smugglers used helicopters to transport ecstasy, pot and cocaine
A B.C. man who fought extradition to the United States for years has now pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine.
James Gregory Cameron, 51, worked with a group of B.C. smugglers to fly drugs across the border using helicopters more than a decade ago. He was identified through a U.S. law-enforcement undercover operation that began in 2007, and was indicted in 2009. Cameron lost several B.C. court rounds as he fought his extradition on the grounds that his health issues, including diabetes, couldn’t be properly managed in a U.S. prison.
And he argued before the B.C. Supreme Court and B.C. Court of Appeal that the United States waited too long (three years after his indictment) before applying to have Cameron sent to Washington state. He asked the courts to set aside a decision by the Minister of Justice to surrender him to the Americans for prosecution. Last April, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected Cameron’s request for leave to appeal an earlier B.C. court ruling that the minister had not made an unreasonable decision to turn him over for trial.
Cameron was finally sent to the United States in May, where he entered a not-guilty plea in a U.S. courtroom. He appeared to change his mind July 25, when the date was fixed for his change-of-plea hearing Wednesday. He entered the guilty plea before U.S. Federal Court Judge James Donahue. His sentencing hearing is set for November.
U.S. court documents said Cameron acted as a negotiator on behalf of the cross-border, drug-trafficking organization and was responsible for organizing the transport and delivery of ecstasy and pot to the United States, where it would be exchanged for cocaine and transported back to Canada.
In early 2008 “Cameron explained to a prospective customer that the men who made the decisions about the drug sales were two brothers.”
Cameron was indicted along with several other B.C. men, all of whom have now pleaded guilty and been sentenced.
In June, Colin Hugh Martin was sentenced to seven years for supplying the helicopters used by the drug gang. He had also waged a lengthy and unsuccessful court battle against his extradition.
Co-accused Sean Doak pleaded guilty in 2016 and was also handed a seven-year term. Adam Christian Serrano pleaded guilty in 2013 in Seattle and received a three-year sentence.
Another B.C. man involved, Sam Lindsay-Brown, hanged himself in the Spokane County Jail after flying into a law-enforcement trap in 2009. U.S. agents met him as he landed a helicopter outside the city. Another pilot in the ring, Jeremy Snow, was caught flying drugs into Idaho in March 2009. After serving a 46-month sentence, he returned to Kelowna, where he was shot to death in February 2013.
During the U.S. investigation, agents seized more than 240,000 ecstasy pills, 175 kilograms of cocaine and 358 kilos of marijuana from the B.C. drug gang.