DEA Joint Investigation leads to charges against three Calgary men

Calgary… Three Calgary men have been implicated in a cross-border drug-trafficking conspiracy following a joint investigation between Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) and the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

 

ALERT’s Calgary Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU), with the assistance of Calgary Police Service, RCMP, Canadian Border Services, and DEA agents, arrested three Calgary men at the center of a multi-million dollar smuggling and trafficking operation. 

 

Christopher Mark Scher , 33, Michael Mirr Janecek, 37, and Steven Manuel Doporto, 31, have been charged with conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to traffic cocaine, possession, trafficking, and possession of proceeds of crime. 

 

The investigation dates back to October 2012 when an Alberta man was arrested on a traffic stop by Nevada Highway Patrol with 45 kilograms of cocaine. The cocaine, worth more than $4.5 million and packaged in 63 vacuum-sealed bundles, was concealed in a hidden compartment underneath the bed of a pickup truck. 

 

Through investigation with the DEA, it was determined that the cocaine was destined for Calgary. Using a variety of complex investigative techniques, CFSEU-Calgary put Scher, Janecek, and Doporto as the principals in a drug trafficking operation. The trio was believed to be major cocaine distributors in Southern Alberta and routinely used couriers to import cocaine from the southern United States.

 

The 15-month investigation concluded with arrests on January 15th. The three accused have no prior history with police and are not believed to be affiliated with any major organized crime groups.

CFSEU-Calgary is an ALERT team established and funded by the Government of Alberta to bring together the province’s most sophisticated law enforcement resources to tackle serious and organized crime. Nearly 400 municipal police, RCMP, and sheriffs work for ALERT.