Art woven into fabric of

culturePage 5

Second blaze at site of burned

grow operationPage 2

EAGLE VALLEY

NEWS Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Vol. 50 No. 10 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.05 (GST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com

Colin Hugh Martin considers himself an honest, responsible, God-fearing man.

Martin was labeled the ringleader of a Canada-U.S. marijuana smuggling opera-tion between 1997 and 1999. It ended fol-lowing a 13-month RCMP investigation. Of the 17 arrested, including his father Donald and brother Damyen. Colin was the only one to face a major conviction.

Currently, Martin is facing a U.S. extra-dition order for his alleged involvement in a second cross-border drug smuggling opera-tion that was taken down in 2009 through a Canada-U.S. investigation dubbed Opera-tion Blade Runner.

Canadian-actor Jason Priestly has bought the rights to fi lm a movie about Blade Runner and one of the alleged co-conspirators, 24-year-old Samuel Lindsay-Brown, who hung himself in a Spokane jail after U.S. Drug Enforcement agents caught him stateside transporting drugs in a heli-copter leased through Martin’s Malakwa company, Gorge Timber Ltd.

While he denies any involvement in Blade Runner, Martin will tell you that Lindsay-Brown might still be alive today if the two had never met. In fact, Martin is not the least bit reserved when it comes to talking about his past, from his early deal-ings with cocaine, to the drug-smuggling operation he, his father and brother were involved in.

In the Shuswap, Martin’s reputation pre-cedes him. He is the notorious drug dealer from Malakwa. But Martin doesn’t get it. To him, this is all a gross exaggeration.

“It’s funny, to look at from my point of view, as far as the celebrity and the famous drug guy from Malakwa – I don’t know the word I’m looking for,” the 37-year-old Martin says over the kitchen table at his Malakwa home. “It’s funny how things can get blown out of proportion and how easy that seems to happen in the media.

“Some things make a great story and I guess if it wasn’t me that they were talking about, I might think that’s a good story.”

Martin laughs at the notion of being

thought of as some kind of gangster. A quick look around his home doesn’t reveal any signs of a gangster lifestyle that Hollywood might be interested in. Though spacious, there are no lav-ish furnishings to be seen. There are no fast cars in the driveway (a Dodge Viper he once owned was seized in 1999 when he was charged with possession of pro-ceeds of crime). There are no fi re-arms sitting around, or stacks of money or wrapped bundles of suspicious materials. In fact, what stands out most are the numer-

ous bright children’s toys. Martin and part-ner Jen Cahill have fi ve children between them. Martin says his kids are his life, and if there’s one lesson he hopes to teach them,

it’s that one must take responsibility for their actions.

“Yeah, there might be some people out there that are truly evil people, but this fi nger pointing… That’s just not who I am,” says Martin. “I am a God-fearing person and I believe that there’s go-ing to be a day that all of us are going to be

judged, and all of our skeletons are going to come out of the closet.”

Martin wound up in the Malakwa areawith his mom and siblings around 1980 tobe with their grandma and grandpa, Hughand Isabelle Gresham, who owned and op-erated the Malakwa cafe.

“We moved in with Grandma and Grand-pa, and they ran the restaurant and us kidspeeled the potatoes and fi lled the pop andpumped the gas – it was kind of a nice littlearrangement really,” says Martin.

Later Martin started working in the bush,largely in the shake and shingle industry.The work was immediately rewarding, andat Grade 8 Martin dropped out of school tobe in the bush full time.

“I felt that doing shake and shingles waswhat I wanted to do in life and I wanted toget right at it so I quit school,” said Martin.

By Lachlan LabereEagle Valley News

See Logging on page 3

Malakwa man trying to rise above criminal pastSpecial Report: Colin Martin talks about life choices.

v-o

rehe ge ce d

he h

o-).e-d,

I am a God-fearing person and I believe that there’s going to be a day that all of us are going to be

judged, and all of our skeletons are going to come out of the closet.

Colin Martin

Straight talk: Convicted marijuana smuggler Colin Martin doesn’t mince words when discussing his past, or his views about the drug trade and U.S. drug enforcement. Photo by Lachlan Labere

“It was more of a social event… I wasn’t there learning anything.”

Around the time he was 19, Martin says the NDP government decided to pull out of funding the shake and shingle industry. This, he says, had a crippling effect on the commu-nity.

“They decided dead standing trees were a better home for the white owl then they were for us to make a living,” said Mar-tin. “So the salvage program was discon-tinued and there were hundreds of people looking for work. Res-taurant business went in the toilet, things around here just dried up.”

Those still with per-mits to harvest wood, including Dave Stead, suddenly had a dead-line to get the work fi nished. While work-ing for Stead, Martin partnered with Robbie Muskett. Martin says they were about two weeks from fi nishing when Muskett was fa-tally injured on the job.

“We were falling the trees, cutting them to length for the he-licopter to lift out,” said Martin. “Robbie, I think he was about 23, 24 years old, and a tree rolled down the bank and squished his head onto a stump. That was probably the most shocking, horrible ex-perience that’s ever happened in my life… I remember it like it was yesterday.”

After this experi-ence, Martin says he could no longer do the work. He was diag-nosed with post-trau-matic stress and spent about eight months on worker’s compensa-tion. Martin eventually arranged for a buyout from the compensa-tion board. He says they paid him $11,000 so that he could get a pilot’s licence. But that pursuit ended when Martin learned his eyesight wasn’t good enough.

Around the same time, Martin began selling and using co-caine. One week dur-

ing the three-month period he was using, Martin says he wound up in hospital on fi ve separate occasions. The experience scared him off the drug, but did not dissuade him from selling.

“I wish I could say yeah, I wound up in the hospital and at the end of the day I thought,

‘Gee, this is horrible stuff and I shouldn’t be selling this to people.’ But that’s not the way it was.”

Martin’s career change, from cocaine peddler to marijuana smuggler, began one fateful day when his father showed up on his doorstep, claim-ing he knew people in Eugene, Oregon who were in the pot busi-ness. Colin said he could get his hands on 10 pounds of pot, and Donald knew people with property on the Canada-U.S. bor-der they could move it through. Soon af-ter, with his brother Damyen’s help, the three were success-ful in smuggling the

popular B.C. bud into the States and made a quick, $30,000 profi t.

“It was only 10 pounds, but at the time we were think-ing, ‘that’s a lot of pot,’” says Martin. “It’s strange, but that’s how small time it was and how it really all started.”

The operation con-tinued to grow to a point where Martin was pulling in about $200,000 a week. And, despite the incredible risks involved, it was work he was more comfortable with.

“I thought this is great,” said Martin. “This is much less stress than dealing co-caine.”

In 2004, Donald and Damyen were sentenced to terms of house arrest af-ter pleading guilty of conspiring to export marijuana to the U.S. Colin says he also pleaded guilty, seek-ing the same punish-ment. Two years later he was found guilty on eight counts of money laundering, conspiracy to traffi c in drugs, con-spiracy to export drugs and possession of pro-ceeds of crime. He was later sentenced to

two-and-a-half years in prison but, with an appeal still before the court, has yet to serve time.

As for the U.S. ex-tradition order, Mar-tin has no intention of going back to the U.S. anytime soon. He maintains the only reason his name is in a U.S. court indictment is because of a series of brief exchanges he had with U.S. Drug Enforcement agents, beginning in Septem-ber 2009, where he was attempting to demon-strate to CBC report-ers the agency’s will-ingness to “get in bed with the bad guys.”

While he recogniz-es there are indeed bad guys involved in the drug-smuggling busi-ness, Martin doesn’t include himself among them. When he hears that people are afraid of him, of who he is and what he’s done, Martin says it hurts him deeply.

“There are people out there who are in-volved in this industry who are not these mon-sters the cops would like you to believe,” says Martin. “They are normal people just like you and me. I feel I’m

a pretty normal person. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been at this so long I’ve become numb to what’s going on.”

To one end of Mar-tin’s 30-acre property sits a spacious yet near-empty workshed. On one side of the shed is a gravel pit Martin hopes will be-come profi table as his competitors in the area start running out of product. To the other side runs a creek on which he hopes to es-tablish an independent power project. He says the plans are already before the province for approval. But Martin is reserved about both projects, admitting past attempts at going legit have been chal-lenging at best.

Asked if he is still somehow involved in the drug trade, Martin says he knows people who are involved and who sometimes come to him seeking advice. After a long pause, he admits it has been a pretty big part of his life – and not an easy one to shake.

“I just want to be right up front, but then there’s the other side of me that says you need to watch what you say. You do have kids who rely on you. I’m an honest person. I would not sit here and look you in the eyes and tell you I’m a perfect, law abiding citizen. Do I break the law? Sure I do. That’s all I have to say on that.”

Logging death leads to life in traffickingContinued from front

Family first: Colin Martin shares a moment with Riddick and Mykal, two of his five children. Photo by Lachlan Labere

og-.g

m-”I,ekdatt -

I feel I’m a pretty normal person. Maybe it’s just

because I’ve been at this so long

I’ve become numb to what’s going

on. Colin Martin

Eagle Valley News • Wednesday, March 10, 2010 3

1. Are you over 50 and using a computer? YES NO

Eye Exams/Contact Lenses/Eye Glasses/Pre-op & Post-op Laser Surgery

Dr. Shelley Geier, Optometrist

If you answered yes to both these questions, your regular bifocals or

progressive glasses may not be adequate. For solutions come and see us at...

Sicamous Vision Care Centre

(250) 836-3070 • 217 Finlayson St., Sicamous, BC

2. Do you have eyestrain, burning eyes or a sore neck when using the computer? YES NO

Avoid Eyestrain

yard medics

Equipped with:• Skid Steer • Mini Excavator • House Exteriors• Rottotiller (all sizes)

Book early for all yard services:• Pruning • Stump Grinding • Grass • Aerating

• Hedge Trimming/Planting • Power Raking• Decks & Fencesi

GetReady

forSpring!

Locally owned & operatedPaul Backs (250) 836-3277 • (250) 517-8321 • yardmedics@cablelan.net

SleddersWelcome!

250-836-3500 1221 Eagle Pass Way, Sicamous

Weekend Breakfast Buffet starts at 7:00 am

Nightly Dinner Specials.$595 Breakfast Special served Monday through Friday

Now open at 7:00 am!

1122 RIVERSIDE AVE.

250-836-3603

Family DiningAvailable

Congratulations

Winner!

3

Okanagan LifeBest Restaurants

Moose Mulligans 2009Finalist “Best Eatery”

North Okanagan/Shuswap!

Shea Weberon your GOLD MEDAL

achievement!from all of us at the Moose!

E A G L E V A L L E Y 317 MAIN ST. SICAMOUS

Pharmacy: 836-3784Pharmacy 836-2963

Best service! Best prices! Biggest smiles!

AND THE FLOWER SHOP

Spring Bouquet!

$2599

Greet Daylight Savings Time (March 14th) with our Specially Designed

A Big Armfulof Spring!

PLEASE STOP SPEEDING BEFORE SPEEDING

STOPS YOU!!