Suspect ordered extradited to U.S. in smuggling case
Co-accused discharged after judge cites insufficient evidence
A B.C. Supreme Court judge said the U.S. has provided enough evidence of a Vancouver man's link to a cocaine smuggling ring to send him to California to face charges there.
But while Justice Jeanne Watchuk ordered Tenny Guon Lim to be “committed” to the U.S. to stand trial, she also said the case against his co-accused, Dario Antonio Baruca, did not meet the necessary test for his extradition.
Baruca made statements in encrypted messages and phone calls about wanting to make drug deals with an associate known as Orange Tang in California, according to the record of the case (ROC) prepared by the U.S. attorney.
Watchuk said that despite Baruca's comments, including that he wanted to smuggle cocaine from Costa Rica to Europe, he never reached a formal agreement with others charged, which is a necessary component of a conspiracy case.
“While the ROC certainly contains evidence that Orange Tang and Mr. Baruca likely wanted and intended to traffic cocaine, there is no evidence that they agreed to do so,” she said.
She said the ROC was “bereft of sufficient evidence” to extradite Baruca.
“I therefore find sir that I cannot commit you on the offences alleged and I therefore discharge.”
Baruca and Lim were among 13 people charged in 2019 for their alleged role in an international drug-smuggling operation that moved ecstasy into the U.S. in exchange for cocaine and methamphetamine.
At the time, Baruca had been the subject of a 2017 Vancouver police investigation into heroin and fentanyl trafficking. Eleven charges were laid against him in August 2020, but all appeared to have been stayed last week.
And Lim had just been sentenced to eight years after pleading guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking. He had been collared in 2014 with 35 kilograms of heroin smuggled through the Vancouver airport with the aid of a corrupt Air Canada employee.
An interview he gave to the RCMP in 2014 was used to identify his voice in the U.S. investigation, Watchuk noted.
While she ordered Lim committed to the U.S. — the first step in the extradition process — she did not accept some of the American evidence presented against him.
In fact, she said U.S. investigators were only speculating that Lim was the person captured in some of the calls and messages using the pseudonym “The Goat.”
But other evidence presented in the ROC was more compelling, including his link to a co-operating witness as well as a co-accused captured in California with 46 kg of meth in April 2018.
Watchuk said Lim would have 30 days before his committal to the U.S. to decide whether to appeal.
His lawyer, Matthew Nathanson, said afterwards that “we will carefully consider our next steps.”
“There were a number of novel and complex legal issues in this case,” he said.