A Mississauga woman pleaded guilty in a Washington, D.C., court Wednesday for her leading role in two cross-border drug smuggling conspiracies.
Phuong Thi Tran, 39, was the ringleader of an international drug trafficking organization that brought millions of ecstasy pills and other drugs into the United States from Canada from 2002 until her arrest in April of 2008, court documents say.
Her plea will mean she will get a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a $5-million fine.
The drugs were made in Canada by Asian organized crime groups and shipped to drug dealers across the U.S., according to the U.S. Justice Department. More than 10,000 ecstasy pills made it across the border per week, it said.
The ring was discovered during an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Detroit, according to the court documents, after the agents seized drugs they say Ms. Tran arranged to smuggle into the U.S. She was indicted in October, 2006 for conspiracy to distribute ecstasy pills.
And in September, 2007, ICE agents in Philadelphia stopped two shipments of 100,000 ecstasy en route to Boston from Philadelphia. After that incident, Ms. Tran was charged by Philadelphia authorities with conspiracy to distribute ecstasy in December, 2009.
Ms. Tran pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to distribute ecstasy and methamphetamine and one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute ecstasy.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 2. The RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and Toronto Police Units all contributed to the investigation, the court said.