Taiwanese authorities are planning to work with Canada to dismantle a Vancouver-based drug trafficking operation they say was run by an English language tutor from B.C. who is now facing trial before a court in Taipei.

Books for drug smuggling

David Yee-Wei Fan, intelligence chief of Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration, said that "drug trafficking from Vancouver to Taiwan still exists" despite the arrest last year of alleged drug ring leader Mathieu James Forand, a language teacher from Port Moody.

"The CGA has not cooperated with Canada’s RCMP and didn’t build up an information exchange channel yet at the moment," Fan told The Asian Pacific Post.

"The CGA had not been able to pinpoint/identify and neutralize the Canada-based associates of Forand who had been supplying and shipping him illegal drugs.

"For the sake of coping with such illegal drugs trafficking cases, the CGA will consider to build up a mechanism of transnational cooperating with foreign law enforcement agencies," Fan said.

Forand’s father Peter is hoping that his 28-year-old son facing trial in Taiwan for drug trafficking charges will be spared from the death penalty or a life sentence in jail.

"He’s confessed. So he’s going to be sentenced and he’ll serve time," said Peter Forand who travelled across the Pacific last January in time for the court trial of his son.

"We’re just hoping for a lenient sentence," Forand told The Asian Pacific Post.

His son, who had taught English in Taiwan for six years, has been tagged by authorities as the leader of an international drug smuggling ring that was bringing into the country drugs inside hollowed out textbooks from Vancouver.

At the time of his arrest in August 2005, Mathieu James Forand was carrying 414 grams of cocaine, 515 grams of marijuana and hundreds of ecstasy pills.

Eight other people, including Taiwanese Americans, as well as people from Canada, Australia and Hong Kong, were also arrested in connection with the drug ring, but were released soon after. Many of them worked as English teachers.

The judge hearing the case had noted that, according to the nation’s criminal code, people convicted of selling class-one drugs such as cocaine could face life in jail or the death penalty.

However, mitigating factors, such as the full cooperation of the defendant, could lead to a reduced sentence.

"No one’s demanding capital punishment in this case. It’s legally possible but unlikely," Forand said.

His son has confessed to having sold various drugs in Taiwan from April 2003 until his arrest and has been denied bail by the court, along with another defendant in the case, Su Sheng-his, a Taiwanese American.

The arrest of the Canadian English teacher has not stemmed the flow of drugs from Vancouver to Taiwan.

"Drug trafficking is going on around the world with various techniques and guises," said RCMP Cpl. Tom Seaman.

The police officer declined to make a comment on whether this particular case triggered an RCMP probe to uncover the teacher’s associates in Vancouver and shut down their drug pipeline to Taiwan.

Asked if illegal drugs have ceased to flow from Vancouver to Taiwan, Seaman said: "No, it’s not a safe assumption."

Ben Glickman, co-owner of Footprints Recruiting Inc., a downtown Vancouver-based placement agency for English language teachers, said that the case of Mathieu James Forand is "just a blip on the screen" of the language teaching industry.

"It’s an unfortunate incident. But we haven’t seen a drop in the demand for English language teachers abroad," Glickman said.

"Teachers who come from countries like Canada where drug laws are not as severe as countries where they’re going to teach get into trouble when they start doing drugs," he said.

The Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver said that medical tests required for a work permit do not cover marijuana and other substance abuse.

A Teco official said that applicants are only required to declare that they do not use illegal drugs.