United Nations gang founder appeals his 30-year U.S. sentence

VANCOUVER — United Nations gang founder Clay Roueche says he is a changed man after serving a decade in a U.S. prison, and he wants his 30-year sentence for drug smuggling and money laundering reduced to 21 years and 10 months.

Roueche filed his submissions to a Seattle judge last week, “asking for mercy.”

In the 11-page document, he says he pleaded guilty in April 2009 “to end this chapter of my life that has brought my family so much grief.

“I never took into account that my lifestyle then would have such a negative impact on the world around me,” Roueche wrote. “After recognizing the devastating effects that the drug trade has caused internationally, and that I was a factor in that cause, I confronted my past, accepted my conduct as my own, and took responsibility.”

Roueche argued that he should get the sentence break because he has been a model inmate, “demonstrating leadership and encouraging prisoners to transform their lives.”

He has earned 50 certificates while incarcerated, which he says “is an indication that I will live a crime-free productive life.”

Roueche also filed letters from his elderly parents and his children pleading for the sentence reduction and noting all the years he has been away from them.

“Grant me the relief sought of 262 months, which is still a hefty penalty for a serious drug offence,” Roueche wrote, directly addressing U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert Lasnik. “I am simply asking for some hope that I will one day leave this prison so that I can take action by giving back to the world I have forsaken.”

Roueche also described his overcrowded prison in Coleman, Florida, where he said he is triplebunked.

“And the buses keep coming, it is as if the Bureau of Prisons has unlimited bed space, when in reality, the prison is extremely overcrowded,” Roueche wrote.

Lasnik sentenced Roueche in a Seattle courtroom in December 2009, noting that he was the leader of a violent international drug gang and that his “day of reckoning” had arrived.

The U.S. attorney’s office filed written submissions last month opposing Roueche’s request for a lower sentence, although agreeing that “Roueche appears to have made good use of his time while incarcerated.”

“It is certainly commendable behaviour for an individual whose conduct led to the distribution of hundreds of pounds of illegal drugs and spawned accompanying violence,” assistant U.S. attorney Helen Brunner said in court documents.

“Nonetheless, it does not overcome his conduct or provide a real basis for reducing his sentence.”

She noted that Roueche “was responsible for smuggling, transporting and distributing more than 418 kilograms of cocaine and more than 1,290 kilograms of marijuana.”

After Roueche’s arrest, police in B.C. found illegal “firearms in his home and vehicle, along with other items such as handcuffs and pepper spray,” Brunner noted. “Roueche drove an armoured vehicle for protection because of the violent world in which he existed.”

Over the last decade, several UN gang members have been convicted in Canada of conspiracy to commit murder and firstdegree murder. Roueche was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the B.C. cases.

Brunner said that the 30-year sentence was deserved.