‘It’s shocking’: Alleged driver arrested after W5 investigation into drug smuggling network

A W5 investigation helped expose a network linked to Canadians jailed in Hong Kong after allegedly being used as unwitting drug mules. Jon Woodward reports.

TORONTO – A Canadian mom is welcoming news of an arrest related to the drug smuggling network that she believes duped her daughter, and three other people from southern Ontario, into becoming drug mules before being arrested overseas.

Naderia says the arrest adds credibility to her daughter Jade’s story, and hopes it spurs officials in Hong Kong to realize she is not the drug trafficker they believe she is and release her.

“I believe that this drug cartel has taken enough from us, from this community. They’ve taken enough. So enough is enough,” Naderia said in an interview from her home in Cambridge, Ont.

A W5 investigation earlier this year traced the story of Jade, a 19-year-old who her parents say applied for a job as a courier, and was reassured that they were bringing legal items overseas.

However, when Jade arrived in Hong Kong in September, officials there opened her suitcase to find 25 kilograms of cocaine inside. She has been in custody since then, only allowed one ten-minute phone call a month to her family back in Canada.

“She said it took days, if not weeks, to really understand what happened to her,” Naderia said. “She was spinning a lot. She was coming to grips with the gravity of the situation, because she did not know that she was being trafficked and used as a drug mule.”

W5 is not including the family’s last name in the coverage.

It turned out Jade was not the only one. A 21-year-old man, Omar, was also jailed. W5 identified several recruiters in the chats who are also from the same region of Canada.

But the ringleader, who only used punctuation as a username, a dot, hasn’t been identified. It’s that punctuation that has given the network a name: the “dot network.”

Waterloo Regional Police say they arrested Alexander Kwan, 36, and believe he served as a driver for these unwitting couriers.

Investigators completed a search warrant in Markham on June 11, then arrested and charged Kwan last week with possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession for the purpose of exportation.

Kwan appeared by video link in the Waterloo Region Courthouse from the Maplehurst Correctional Centre Tuesday afternoon. He gave his name when asked.

His paralegal met with him privately and then requested another hearing to make an application for bail. His lawyer hasn’t yet returned a query from W5.

When asked about Jade’s case, Global Affairs Canada said it is aware of the case and is providing assistance. An email from W5 to the Chinese embassy has so far been unanswered.

Naderia said she hopes the arrest causes the Canadian government to push this case with Chinese officials.

“It’s shocking. It’s a feeling that goes through your body that you cannot quite explain. It’s a numbness,” she said.

“The purpose of me reaching out to the public and to the media is to stop this in its tracks,” she said. “Our young people are not to be trafficked anymore.

“And I want to be clear to the law enforcement and to the government of Canada, that they should step up and stop our young people being trafficked.”