4 Canadians in Cocaine Ring Sentenced : Court: One gets 14 years, three others 11 years for roles in a billion-dollar drug operation that ran through O.C..

A federal court judge on Monday sentenced four Canadian nationals to prison terms of 14 and 11 years in connection with a drug ring that authorities say moved as much as $1 billion in cocaine last year through Orange County to New York and Canada.

Drug Enforcement Agency agents broke the ring in February and seized a record 1,507 pounds of high-grade Colombian cocaine from the four suspects, whom agents said posed as Disneyland tourists to enter the United States.

Alain Famelart, 35, of St. Hubert, Quebec, was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison, the stiffest term given to the four during a hearing in Santa Ana before Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler.

Famelart received the longest sentence because the judge found him to be more than a “minor participant” in the drug ring, said Robert R. Calo, an assistant U.S. attorney.

Christine Viau, 33 of Lemoyme, Quebec; Pierre Mailloux, 50, of St. Denis Sur Richelieu, Quebec; and Jean Joseph Emery, 41, of Montreal were sentenced to 135 months, or 11.25 years, in prison.

All four faced a maximum possible sentence of life in prison.

Miguel Angel Cortes, a 43-year-old Colombian national, is awaiting trial in August for his alleged role in the drug ring, Calo said.

Relying on a tip from Canadian law enforcement authorities, DEA agents arrested Famelart and Viau in February after following them from their hotel near Disneyland to a motel in Corona, where Cortes allegedly loaded their motor home with cocaine. The agents followed Mailloux and Emery the next day through the same course.

DEA agents allege the ring started around January, 1993, when Cortes, then living in Costa Mesa, began receiving monthly shipments of cocaine from Colombia via couriers in Mexico.

In connection with the case, Canadian authorities made 21 raids in Montreal and arrested 12 people, charging the suspects with conspiracy to import cocaine.