Hells Angel arrested, charged with drug smuggling
Cocaine, meth in duffel bags worth more than US$2M
A high-profile Hells Angel was arrested with another man near Creston Friday and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking and drug smuggling.
Jason Cyrus Arkinstall, of the Mission chapter of the notorious biker gang, will appear in a Cranbrook courtroom today, along with his co-accused, Lawrence Edward Dwyer.
The two men allegedly ran back into Canada after being spotted south of the border in Idaho with close to five duffel bags of cocaine and methamphetamine worth more than US$2 million.
The U.S. Border Patrol had been alerted to suspicious activity on a remote forest service road near the Canadian border.
“An agent responded to the area and located two individuals who were concealing themselves,” border patrol agency press officer Jason Givens said in a news release.
“As the agent approached the individuals, they fled into Canada. The agent located the duffel bags near the location where the individuals were hiding.”
The duffel bags were found to contain 38 kilograms of cocaine and 90 kilograms of methamphetamine.
The border agents gave Idaho State Police a description of a dark-coloured Range Rover “observed leaving the area of the smuggling event.”
“Idaho State Police quickly located the suspect vehicle along Highway 95. The driver was taken into custody in connection with the narcotics smuggling and the vehicle was seized by Border Patrol,” Givens said.
Sgt. Kris Clark, of the RCMP's Federal Serious and Organized Crime branch, confirmed Monday that police on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border “have initiated respective investigations into a significant seizure of drugs.”
He said that RCMP Border Integrity Team investigators based in Osoyoos arrested Arkinstall and Dwyer with the assistance of the police dog services and RCMP officers from both the Creston and Cranbrook detachments.
“This investigation is in its infancy and no further details are available at this time,” he said.
Arkinstall and Dwyer, both 47, have each been charged with two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and two of importing/exporting a controlled substance.
Acting Chief U.S. Border Patrol Agent David BeMiller said that “cocaine and methamphetamine are ravaging our communities.”
“Border Patrol agents are committed to preventing dangerous drugs and associated crime from destroying families and communities on both sides of the border,” he said.
Arkinstall is well-known to police on this side of the border.
In 2013, the former Cranbrook resident was charged in Spain with Hells Angel Chad Wilson and two associates for attempting to smuggle half a tonne of cocaine into the country.