9-year sentences for key players in major trafficking network that smuggled drugs into Winnipeg

Five people behind a major western Canadian drug-trafficking operation, including a pair of Winnipeg partners who oversaw a distribution network selling destructive drugs that flowed into the city by semi-trailer, are serving multi-year sentences behind bars. 

Five people behind a major western Canadian drug-trafficking operation, including a pair of Winnipeg partners who oversaw a distribution network selling destructive drugs that flowed into the city by semi-trailer, are serving multi-year sentences behind bars.

Of the 11 individuals arrested when police dismantled a drug ring last October in an investigation described as Project Riverbank, two leaders, a mid-level operative and a pair of courier drivers have been sentenced in recent months, according to a review of the five sentencing hearings by CBC News. 

Winnipeg partners Daniel Finkbeiner and Herbert Mejia-Orellana-Delgado, who hired employees to sell and stash highly addictive drugs like methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine, received identical nine-year prison sentences.

Lisa Hallson, a dealer from Winnipeg lower in the drug-trafficking network's hierarchy, was sentenced to seven years in prison. 

Described in provincial court as a “mere courier,” Amanda Borges and William Fuller, of Winnipeg, received five- and 4½-year sentences, respectively.

A stay of proceedings has been ordered against Darci Geiger, of Winnipeg, court documents say.

Web of traffickers, couriers

Five more individuals arrested in Project Riverbank, including the alleged kingpins, Mohammad Khan of Vancouver and his associate Mason Burg of Winnipeg, still have their cases before the court. They are considered innocent until proven guilty.

Several police forces embarked on a nearly 10-month investigation to bust the drug ring, seizing nearly $2.8 million worth of drugs and other property in the process.

In Manitoba alone, three kilograms of methamphetamine, 11 kilograms of cocaine, 170 grams of heroin and two kilograms of ketamine were seized. 

Project Riverbank initially focused on Finkbeiner, before discovering a web of traffickers, couriers smuggling drugs from British Columbia, as well as Winnipeg drivers making deliveries close to home.

“Mr. Finkbeiner, within the city of Winnipeg, was certainly what I would describe as a high-level trafficker of multiple, serious hard drugs,” Crown attorney Anne Turner said at Finkbeiner's sentencing in April. 

“He certainly was in charge, along with Mr. Delgado, of this operation. They had direction that they were giving to those employees, as well as direction to their customers about drop-offs of drugs, pickups of money.”. 

Police kept close tabs on the accused. Officers made covert entries into suites where drugs were stashed. They wiretapped phone conversations and used surveillance footage and video cameras they installed to spy on their targets.

The five sentencing hearings, which occurred from April to July this year, sketch a picture of some tactics police employed to take down the drug ring.

Over the course of Project Riverbank, it became apparent drugs was flowing into Winnipeg by semi-trailer from British Columbia. The deals were made at truck stops in Headingley or the parking lot of a nearby restaurant.

“The common pattern was that the truck would come in every two weeks or so, sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less,” Taylor said.

In one case, it's alleged semi driver Allan Rodney, whose case remains before the courts, was seen handing a box to a Winnipeg dealer, who then drove to a stash site and left the premises moments later without the box. Police covertly entered the suite the next day to find 325 grams of heroin beside the opened box.

Secret entries into stash locations were a common practice by Winnipeg police throughout the investigation. Officers found kilograms of drugs in an unoccupied suite on Elizabeth Road.

Fake robbery frightened

In October 2018, officers staged a fake break and enter and seized kilograms of methamphetamine and cocaine, among other drugs.

The discovery of the perceived robbery frightened Finkbeiner and Mejia-Orellana-Delgado, whose phone calls and text messages were routinely intercepted by police.

“Clearly based on conversations, they're concerned about obviously losing the huge amount of valuable product they had in the suite at the time, but also how they're going to pay Mr. Khan, losing all of this product,” Taylor said.

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The two leaders of the Winnipeg distribution network were equal partners in the meth ring, the court heard, and thus received identical nine-year sentences for conspiracy to traffic cocaine. They were given credit for entering early guilty pleas, Judge Catherine Carlson said.

Meanwhile, Hallson received a seven-year custodial sentence for conspiracy to traffic cocaine.

She was perceived as a mid-level dealer, subordinate to Finkbeiner and Mejia-Orellana-Delgado but afforded a level of trust above other employees, receiving her own key to a drug storage suite, the court heard.

Smaller players in Project Riverbank were also hit with multi-year prison sentences.

Borges received five years for conspiring to traffic methamphetamine. She was told almost daily where to deliver or pick up. She was often delivering several ounces of a drug to a customer, a disturbing quantity, the court was told.

Fueller was sentenced to an additional 43½ months behind bars, on top of time already served, for conspiring to traffic cocaine.

Upon his arrest, he admitted to police that he received a backpack of illicit drugs from a courier driver and dropped it off at a stash location. 

Harm to community

Of the five individuals who pleaded guilty earlier this year, only Hallson took the opportunity at her sentencing hearing to speak, apologizing to her family, her fiancé and the greater community.

“Since taking a restorative justice class, I've just come to realize that there are a lot more victims of what I was doing than what I realized, and so for that I am very sorry,” Hallson said. 

The other individuals nabbed in Project Riverbank are facing multiple drug trafficking and possession charges:

• Mason Joaquin Burg, of Winnipeg.
• Mohammad Shakil Khan, of Vancouver.
• Allan Ronald Rodney, of Surrey, B.C.
• Shontal Vaupotic, of Surrey, B.C.
• David Kizuk

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