Nov 9/2024 Cirilo Bautista Lopez/Arrested in Korea Suspect in the Murder of Lindsay Buziak?
Cirilo Bautista Lopez enjoying dinner with his family after his release from prison in 2017.
Short guy in the black shirt which reads “LAX”
Posted 2025.01.22. 17:25
A group that smuggled enough cocaine to treat 1.22 million people by disguising it as plaster and attempted to distribute it in solid form in cooperation with an international drug trafficking organization has been brought to trial.
Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office’s Violent Crime Investigation Division (Chief Prosecutor Park Sung-min) announced on the 22nd that they have arrested and indicted five people, including Canadian National A (55, male), the ringleader, on charges of violating the Aggravated Punishment Act for Specific Crimes and the Narcotics Control Act.
They also said that B (34, male), the ringleader in domestic manufacturing, was already on trial for another crime, so they were additionally indicted. In addition, B’s girlfriend C (28) was indicted without detention on charges of aiding and abetting the manufacturing of cocaine (aiding and abetting the Aggravated Punishment Act for Specific Crimes). An Interpol red notice was also issued for four accomplices who fled overseas.
Mr. A and his group were indicted on charges of smuggling liquid cocaine from Colombia to Busan Port from July 2020 to May 2021, and then mixing it with raw materials such as hydrochloric acid to manufacture and distribute solid cocaine. The cocaine they manufactured weighed approximately 61 kg. The retail price was estimated to be around 30 billion won, which is enough for 1.22 million people to take.
Mr. A’s group set up a shell company in Korea and pretended to import building plaster, and smuggled liquid cocaine through Busan Port and other places. Some of them were re-exported to Australia using the so-called ‘barrel-changing method’, where they purchased building materials, emptied the barrels, and transferred the liquid cocaine. The rest were moved to a warehouse in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province, where they mixed chemicals and other substances to make solid cocaine. They then tried to sell it in Korea, but were arrested and failed.
The prosecution believes that these gangs are connected to an international drug organization. This organization was found to have paid for the cost of establishing a shell company and renting a warehouse. It was also investigated that Mr. A, who led the crime, was a Filipino Canadian National and was from a Canadian gang. Mr. B also lived in the United States as a child and was active in an LA gang. It was investigated that Mr. B manufactured cocaine under the direction of a Mexican gang he knew in the past.
Authorities plan to conduct a digital forensic analysis of the 55-year-old’s phone and further investigate the details of the smuggling operation, including the timeline of the drugs’ transport via cargo ship and the methods used for cocaine processing. “Korea is no longer safe from cocaine,” said So Byung-ho, head of the investigation team, adding that the probe into the connection between the Canadian drug cartel and local networks is ongoing.
The prosecution stated, “It appears that an international drug organization attempted to manufacture and distribute cocaine in Korea, judging that large-scale distribution of cocaine was possible in Korea as well,” and “We will work to secure the early repatriation of accomplices residing overseas who are on Interpol’s red notice, while doing our utmost to maintain the indictment so that the defendants can be sentenced to a strict sentence commensurate with their crimes.”
https://biz.chosun.com/topics/topics_social/2025/01/22/DOUFP2N4VNCWHJ5WRO2NDK67SM
UPDATE: AUG/2024
A 55-year-old Vancouver man with suspected links to the United Nations gang and the Rock Machine has been arrested in South Korea with a large amount of cocaine.
The man, whose name is protected in the Korean justice system,
was arrested Aug. 10/2024 after an investigation by that country’s coast guard. Two Korean men were also arrested and charged.
A court judge once said, “Cirilo Bautista is an incorrigible who has no will or desire to change.”
When our long time well-respected vancouver journalist Kim Bolan wrote the story below back in AUGUST 2024, she did not name the Vancouver man who was arrested. THE KOREAN STORY DID NOT IDENTIFY HIM EITHER.
I have recently confirmed that the man in this story is none other than Cirilo Bautista Lopez, the uncle of the Delalcazar brothers in Victoria.
A career criminal/drug trafficker who may have been involved in the planning of Lindsay’s murder, perhaps the guy who called the hit. This lends to the question, why have the Saanich Police not been watching this guy, and if they have, how and why did they allow Cirilo to leave this country? Is it possible that Cirilo had nothing to do with Lindsay’s murder? Surely, the Saanich Police are aware of Cirilo’s arrest in Korea. The question is, did they go to Korea to interview Cirilo, or did they sit at their desks waiting for him to call.
If that is the case, perhaps the Calgary Drug bust is not connected at all to Lindsay’s murder as the Saanich Police have always led us to believe. Or perhaps the Saanich Police are not actively investigating Lindsay Buziak’s murder at all, and hope that people like me and others, will just go away. Well, that sure is not about to happen. Korea takes drug trafficking very seriously and Cirilo Bautista Lopez will likely be looking at 5 years to life in prison. Not like Canada where the courts give you 10 years, and you are out in 3.
That was exactly what happened to Cirilo after his big bust in Winnipeg Manitoba in 2010. In 2014, a Manitoba judge handed down a sentence of 10 years, yet Cirilo was released in 2017, after serving just a 2 1/2-year sentence. Then he returned to his family in Victoria, where they all welcomed him back with open arms, which means the Delalcazar/Lopez family support their uncle’s involvement in trafficking in narcotics. They all have families of their own, yet seeming they are okay with Uncle Cirilo supplying drugs and leaving people to die in the streets from overdoses. For people like Cirilo Lopez business just carries on as usual.
A court judge once said, “Cirilo Bautista is an incorrigible who has no will or desire to change.” The judge also referred to Cirilo as the mastermind to the operation. Well, it looks like the judge was right.
Minjoo Kim
Korean News
kim.minjoo@mk.co.kr
2024-08-19 11:00:41
A drug gang that brought cocaine worth 180 billion won to Korea, which can be administered by 2 million people at the same time, has been caught.
Korea Coast Guard’s drug investigation team said Monday that three people, including a 55-year-old Canadian drug ring member and a 27-year-old local drug seller, were arrested for allegedly violating the Narcotics Control Act. The 55-year-old drug dealer is accused of smuggling liquid cocaine worth 180 billion won through a container cargo ship from overseas. The amount of cocaine smuggled was enough for 2 million people. Authorities also determined that the 55-year-old trafficker is a high-ranking member of a Canadian drug ring with a prior record of smuggling cocaine via cargo ships from the United States. In early August, police received intelligence about the Canadian drug ring from the National Intelligence Service and launched an investigation.
The case is the first case in which a drug gang member smuggled, processed, and distributed liquid cocaine into Korea through a ship, and at the same time, it is the largest cocaine caught during the distribution process. According to the police on the 19th, the Central Coast Guard arrested a total of three people, including a Canadian drug gang member A (55) and a Korean man B (27), who tried to trade in Korea after receiving 2 kilograms of cocaine on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act (manufacturing, attempted sales, and possession).
Mr. A and others are accused of smuggling liquid cocaine in steel containers into Korea through container ships and processing 60 kilograms of solid cocaine somewhere in Gangwon-do. The maritime police launched an investigation after obtaining intelligence that a Canadian drug gang member was trading a large amount of cocaine smuggled through ships from abroad. As a result, the Coast Guard arrested two people, B and C, who were trading cocaine while hiding at a trading site on the Han River in Seoul on the 10th and confiscated 2 kilograms of cocaine.
Later, on the same day, a Canadian criminal gang member A, a cocaine supplier, was arrested somewhere in Gimpo. He used to smuggle cocaine through ships in the United States and Canada. He turned out to be a high-level figure in a Canadian criminal organization with a history of being arrested.At that time, the Coast Guard confiscated 5kg of cocaine and seized an additional 53kg of cocaine at A’s residence on the 13th of the same month. The seized cocaine was embossed with the English word “UN” (a drug gang that used to operate in Vancouver, Canada).
During the investigation, it was revealed that A and others set up a processing plant somewhere in Gangwon-do,
smuggled liquid cocaine from abroad into Korea through ships and processed it into solid cocaine. The Coast Guard believes that they may be linked to a Canadian criminal organization and a domestic drug organization and is simultaneously tracking the distribution route of cocaine in Korea. In particular, as international drug distribution (domestic smuggling) cases using ships continue to occur, the maritime police continued to monitor trends on foreign ships and collect related criminal information in cooperation with the NIS.
The Coast Guard plans to track and investigate the route of smuggling cocaine into the country through ships and two Colombian foreign criminal members who participated in the processing, while continuing the investigation into whether the Canadian drug crime ring, which is active in the country, is linked to the domestic drug ring. “As an agency in charge of maritime criminal investigations, we will closely cooperate with related agencies such as the National Intelligence Service to block international drug distribution,” a Coast Guard official said. “We will strictly deal with various drug offenders such as smuggling and distribution of drugs through ships.”
KIM BOLAN VANCOUVER SUN
Published Aug 23, 2024
Vancouver man with gang links arrested in Korea with cocaine
The 55-year-old is suspected to have connections to the United Nations and the Rock Machine gangs.
A Korean national was arrested and agreed to contact his alleged supplier to arrange for another purchase. The Vancouver man showed up at the meeting and was arrested, the source said.
More bricks of cocaine were found during a search of the Canadian’s home, resulting in a total seizure of 60 kilograms — the most ever seized from an individual in Korea. (Larger seizures have been intercepted in shipping containers.) The source explained that the cocaine arrived in Korea via a container ship and was in liquid form, hidden in paint cans, meaning detector dogs could not smell it.
It was then taken to a factory about an hour east of Seoul and believed to be controlled by the drug gang. There, the liquid cocaine was converted into brick form. The seized bricks were stamped “UN” — believed to be a reference to the United Nations gang. The Vancouver man claimed during an interrogation after his arrest that he “is a member of the UN gang” and “also implied most of his activity took part at Vancouver,” the source said.
cirilo bautista lopez remains in custody and is expected to go to trial within two months.
Drug trafficking sentences in Korea range from five years to life. The Canadian has a lengthy criminal history in B.C., Manitoba and the U.S. that dates back more than 25 years. One Canadian court ruling noted that police identified him as a “member of the Rock Machine” who was supplying large amounts of cocaine to a Winnipeg drug trafficking organization.
The Rock Machine has connections to the UN gang, according to testimony at a B.C. Supreme Court gang murder trial. A Crown witness and former UN gangster testified at the murder trial that in late 2011 or early 2012, he and another UN member went to Winnipeg to meet members of the Rock Machine. “He agreed that the meeting had two purposes: to explore a future alliance, and to pay them $50,000 in cash to hunt for” another former UN member who they learned was cooperating with police, a B.C. ruling in the case said.
The Korean coast guard source confirmed that the investigation is ongoing, although he doesn’t expect the arrests of more Canadians. Korean investigators are trying to track the “manufacturing country” of the liquid cocaine. Cocaine is not a popular drug in Korea, the source said. In fact, methamphetamine is widely used throughout Southeast Asia, with Canadians involved in both its production and with smuggling it into lucrative markets in Australia and New Zealand.
Earlier this year, Postmedia reported on the international expansion of B.C. gangs that are now networking with transnational organized crime groups to produce and transport drugs around the world. The Postmedia series, based on research in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Southeast Asia, documented how the UN gang — founded in the Fraser Valley in 1997 — had moved its headquarters to Vietnam, where it continues to be involved in the international drug trade, as well as the gang war at home.
Canadians linked to B.C. criminal organizations have been arrested in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, China, the Philippines, and now Korea.
EMAIL ADDRESS: murderondesousa@gmail.com