U.S. sentences leader of Canadian drug gang to 30 years

Reporting from Seattle — 

The leader of a violent Canadian drug gang known as the United Nations -- which has transported millions of dollars in cocaine, marijuana, firearms and cash up and down the West Coast -- was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in a U.S. federal prison.

Officials said that the sentencing of Clay Franklin Roueche, 34, marked a turning point in British Columbia’s attempts to stamp out a gang war and slow the flood of illegal drugs across the U.S.-Canada border.

In the late 1990s, Roueche, who once made his living as a scrap-metal salesman and welder in the comfortable suburbs east of Vancouver, founded the notorious U.N. gang, which prosecutors called both “corporate and violent.”

Its multinational membership is known for a dedication to Eastern philosophy and adherence to the credo “honor-loyalty-respect,” which is emblazoned on the organization’s jewelry, T-shirts and gravestones.

The gang’s battle with the rival Red Scorpions for control of the area drug market has bloodied the streets of British Columbia’s Lower Mainland. At least 20 people died during the first few months of this year -- many of them in brazen attacks in nightclub parking lots and on busy street corners.

British Columbia drug organizations have made huge profits selling the province’s powerful variety of marijuana, known as B.C. bud, in the U.S. and using the revenue to buy Mexican-imported cocaine. Some estimates have put the province’s annual drug economy at $6.3 billion.

According to U.S. authorities, the U.N. gang ran helicopter shipments of marijuana into the mountainous backcountry of northern Washington state, then laundered millions of dollars of cash in Los Angeles and purchased cocaine for shipment back to Canada.

“To law enforcement in Canada and the U.S., Clay Roueche is the prototypical drug kingpin -- the leader of a dangerous gang of criminals who have taken over a multimillion-dollar drug trade,” U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said.

“He was the one who started the U.N. gang, and that [marks] him clearly as the leader, with a capital L,” the judge said. “The massive amounts of drugs, the highly sophisticated means of transport, the huge amounts of money and the pervasive presence of weapons all argue for a lengthy sentence.”

Prosecutors said that Roueche would probably be eligible for parole after serving about 85% of his sentence.

Conversations secretly recorded by law enforcement showed that Roueche had avoided traveling to the U.S. in recent years, knowing he might face arrest there. But when he flew to Mexico in May 2008 -- ostensibly for a wedding -- he was turned away by authorities there and deported to Texas, where he was arrested.

A investigation of the gang in 2005-06, conducted with the help of undercover informants and wiretaps, resulted in the seizure of 2,169 pounds of Canadian marijuana, 335 kilograms of cocaine, $2.03 million in U.S. currency and five firearms.

“He told one witness he was sending $500,000 a week” in drug profits to be laundered, Assistant U.S. Atty. Susan Roe told the judge. “That’s $26 million a year. . . . The size of this operation was enormous.”

Roe said that Roueche ran a business “in equal parts corporate and violent” that employed workers to transport drugs to New York, Chicago, Texas and Los Angeles -- as well as Canada. He traveled to countries including Vietnam, Japan, the Netherlands, Lebanon, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, China, Venezuela, India, Australia and Mexico, Roe said.

“Clay Roueche was a world traveler because he had a global business empire,” she said.

Defense attorney Todd Maybrown argued that Roueche had admitted his crimes but should not be blamed for the full volume of drugs crossing the border. Most of the violence involving U.N. gang members saw them as victims, not perpetrators, Maybrown added.

The defendant, dressed in khaki trousers and matching shirt, sat staring at the defense table during the sentencing, his mouth resting tensely on his clasped hands.

“When a person is subjected to a horrible circumstance, they find out who their friends are. I’m proud to say I have some of the best friends in the world,” Roueche said in a brief address to the court, referring to the letters of support written to the judge from former employers, family members and his young children.

“I can’t change what’s already done,” he said. “Life is one big lesson, and it’s important to learn from our mistakes. I promise I will not make the same mistakes. . . . I believe circumstances always change: What’s negative today is positive tomorrow. That’s why I live my life free of fear. At this point, I’ll keep marching forward.”

kim.murphy@latimes.com