LOS ANGELES
An investigation into an international drug trafficking organization has resulted in the arrest of a Canadian man who allegedly orchestrated the shipment of narcotics from the Los Angeles area to Canada, officials allege.
He was also connected to the seizure of more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine and 333 kilograms of cocaine, the Justice Department announced today.
Sam Nang Bou, 40, of Edmonton, Canada, was arrested Thursday by the FBI. Bou made his initial court appearance Friday afternoon and was ordered held without bond.
Over the past year, the criminal complaint filed Friday alleges that Bou traveled to Southern California to personally handle the delivery of large shipments of drugs to long-haul semi-truck drivers.
The criminal complaint specifically charges Bou with the distribution of cocaine in relation to a shipment of 105 kilograms of cocaine that was delivered to a semi-truck in Hesperia on June 28 and later seized by law enforcement in Arizona.
As a result of the seizures over the past year – a total of 1,008 pounds of methamphetamine and 333 kilograms of cocaine – the affidavit estimates that “Bou has distributed drugs with a value of at least $9.8 million in Los Angeles, and likely several times that amount if exported and resold in Canada.”
Bou is facing up to life in prison if convicted of the charges. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The affidavit in support of the complaint outlines a series of deliveries and subsequent seizures, most of which begin with Bou leaving one of two “stash houses” in Alhambra.
Bou drove to various locations in Southern California, where he delivered boxes and duffel bags filled with narcotics that were loaded into the passenger compartments of semi-trucks, according to the affidavit.
The complaint alleges that Bou made a total of eight deliveries of narcotics to semi-truck drivers, including a shipment of 500 pounds of methamphetamine that was seized on August 23.
Also law enforcement conducted several searches and recovered 48 kilograms of suspected cocaine inside two sophisticated hidden compartments in a minivan that Bou had recently locked up in a storage facility in Pasadena.
Bou is scheduled to be arraigned on September 22.
The FBI and the Los Angeles HIDTA Task Force are conducting the investigation into Bou and his alleged associates.
The case against Bou is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittney M. Harris of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section is prosecuting this case.