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 and who is directly linked in court papers 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 night by the FBI. Bou made his initial court appearance Friday afternoon and was ordered held without bond.
A criminal complaint filed Friday in federal court alleges that, over the past year, Bou travelled 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. That cocaine trafficking offense carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in federal prison.
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. Additionally, in conjunction with Bou’s arrest, 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.
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.”
A criminal complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
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 Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Los Angeles Violent Transnational Organized Crime Task Force, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, the Barstow Police Department, the Mohave Area General Narcotics Enforcement Team, and the Kern County Sheriff’s Office have provided substantial assistance in this matter.
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 that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks
Assistant United States Attorney Brittney M. Harris of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section is prosecuting this case.