Accused drug smuggler loses extradition battle

Accused B.C. drug smuggler Colin Martin was expected to be transported to Washington state Thursday after the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed his attempt to appeal an extradition order.

Martin, who was first charged south of the border almost a decade ago, has been arguing for years in B.C. courts that he should not be sent to the United States to face the charges.

But on Thursday, Canada’s highest court dismissed his application for leave to appeal the latest B.C. ruling ordering his surrender to U.S. authorities.

Earlier this year, Martin had argued before the B.C. Court of Appeal that the minister of justice’s decision to hand him over to U.S. authorities was wrong because the Americans had improperly handled his case.

And he claimed that his Metis heritage would not be taken into account at sentencing if convicted in the U.S. for his alleged role in a massive cross-border smuggling operation.

But Justice Gail Dickson disagreed, saying that a 2016 decision by federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould should be “accorded significant deference on review and interference is limited to exceptional cases of real substance.”

She said Martin’s situation was not one of those cases.

The U.S. alleges Martin was a leader of a drug-trafficking organization that was transporting ecstasy, marijuana and cocaine across the Canada-U. S. border.

“The record of the case indicates that the drug-trafficking organization used helicopters to transport MDMA and marijuana from Canada to remote locations in the United States, where it was exchanged for cocaine to be transported back to Canada,” Dickson noted in her ruling.

“According to the United States, Mr. Martin’s role in the conspiracy was to supply the helicopters used to transport the drugs across the border.”

During the U.S. investigation, agents seized more than 240,000 ecstasy pills, 175 kilograms of cocaine and 358 kilos of marijuana from the drug gang Martin was allegedly aiding.

The seizures took place in Washington, Idaho, Utah, California and Nelson, B.C. Martin and B.C. residents Sean Doak, James Gregory Cameron and Adam Christian Serrano were all charged in the case in December 2009. Another B.C. man involved, Sam Brown, hung himself in a Spokane jail after being arrested in February 2009.

Serrano pleaded guilty in U.S. district court in June 2013 to one count of conspiracy with intent to distribute controlled substances and was sentenced to three years in prison. Doak pleaded guilty last year and was handed a seven-year term.

Like Martin, Cameron has continued to fight his extradition. He has applied to the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal, but no decision has yet been made.

Martin was convicted in 2007 in B.C. Supreme Court for his role in another cross-border drug smuggling operation that dated back to 1998.