Defendant Fought Extradition from Canada for more than a Decade following 41 kilo Cocaine Smuggling Attempt in October 2005
The Canadian organizer of a 2005 attempt to smuggle 41 kilos of cocaine into Canada was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 13 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and ecstasy, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. KEVIN DONALD KERFOOT, 53, of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada was indicted in July 2006, nine months after his co-conspirators were arrested in the Bellingham area as they tried to move 41 kilos of cocaine up I-5 and onto a boat for transit to Canada. The person who was going to ferry the cocaine to Canada, brought more than seven kilos of the drug MDMA or ‘ecstasy’ into the U.S. for distribution via KERFOOT’s drug network. KERFOOT fought extradition from Canada for years. After exhausting the extradition process in the Canadian court system, he was transferred to the Western District of Washington and pleaded guilty in April 2017. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly said KERFOOT, “was involved with a tremendous amount of drugs."
“This defendant tried to avoid facing the music by getting people to lie during his Canadian extradition proceedings," said U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. “Perhaps he thought he could fight a war of attrition - but this office and our law enforcement partners are committed to holding leaders of drug trafficking organizations responsible for the poison they spread both here and in Canada."
According to records filed in the case, a confidential source alerted agents that a large load of cocaine was traveling towards the border in October 2005. Acting on the information, a Washington State Trooper identified a suspicious vehicle driving erratically. After stopping the vehicle, a narcotics K-9 alerted to the presence of cocaine in the vehicle and officers discovered the 41 kilos of cocaine. Agents worked to arrest other members of the smuggling ring, including the captain of a boat waiting at the Bellingham marina, and two other men who were waiting to pick up and distribute the ecstasy the boat had brought down from Canada. KERFOOT was the person in charge of the smuggling operation.
The other members of the smuggling ring were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six-and-a-half years to just over three years. All have since been released after serving their sentences.
As KERFOOT fought extradition from Canada, he convinced at least one member of the crime ring to change his statement to law enforcement. Last August, just as his appeals were running out, one of the members of the ring was attacked in a brazen daylight shooting and suffered seven to eight gunshot wounds as he sat in his car. The witness survived and reported to Canadian law enforcement that KERFOOT was behind the targeted attack. The shooter is currently awaiting trial in Canada.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with assistance from the Washington State Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Vince Lombardi, with assistance from the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs (OIA).
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
