Jerry Turcotte, 48, was arrested by Peru's federal police in May and escaped from a jail cell in Lima on Sept. 22 after overpowering a jail guard who had entered his cell to take out the garbage, according to Peruvian police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Security for Turcotte had been downgraded by a judge involved in his extradition hearings days before the escape, media in Peru reported. Turcotte was a high-ranking member of a Canadian-based drug smuggling organization that moved "half-ton" shipments of cocaine from South America to Canada and Europe through California, the DEA's San Diego division alleges.
Canadian Jerry Turcotte, who escaped from a Peruvian jail in Lima Sept. 22, 2008, while awaiting extradition to the US. Turcotte is wanted by the San Diego Drug Enforcement Agency on cocaine trafficking charges.Turcotte was indicted on April 16 along with three other men -_two currently facing trial in California and a third also on the run - for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Southern California.On April 24 Interpol issued a 'red notice' on Turcotte - a document alerting local police agencies that an arrest warrant has been issued - seven days after a warrant was signed in the U.S. Turcotte once worked as an RCMP officer before becoming a private investigator, the red notice said."Occupation: Retired Canadian law enforcement official (RCMP); private investigator," reads the Interpol document, labelled "confidential, intended only for police and judicial authorities," obtained by Canwest News Service.
The RCMP, however, flatly denies Turcotte ever worked for the federal force."Official records show we have never had a member by that name," said Sgt. Sylvie Tremblay. "He is not a former RCMP member."According to Interpol, "red notices have been recognized in a number of countries as having a legal value to serve as a basis for provisional arrest."A spokeswoman for the DEA in San Diego said they provided the information contained in Turcotte's Interpol red notice."The information provided to Interpol would be the best information we have," said DEA Special Agent Eileen Ziegler. "It is the most accurate we have."
Ziegler said it was up to the RCMP to verify whether Turcotte ever worked for the federal force.Shortly after Turcotte's arrest in May, Carlos Palomino, head of Interpol's criminal intelligence Peru division, told Canwest News Service that Turcotte worked in RCMP counter-narcotics before moving into the drug trade, where he was allegedly involved in smuggling cocaine under the cover of a fish and sugar export company.The DEA opened their investigation into Turcotte and his alleged co-conspirators - dubbed Operation WiFi - in September 2007. Shortly after Turcotte escaped, the DEA released a statement warning "Turcotte, a former law enforcement officer, may also be in possession of police credentials" and that he "should be considered armed and dangerous."The Interpol document alleges Turcotte was behind "smuggling large cocaine loads from Peru to Europe, including the Netherlands and Ukraine" - roughly 335 kilograms between July 2007 and October 2007.
It also alleges he arranged several small cocaine shipments from California to Montreal, including a 14 kg of cocaine shipment from Malibu, Calif., on Sept. 21, 2007, and a 10 kg shipment from San Diego to Montreal on Sept. 26, 2007.
During that same month, Turcotte also travelled from Peru to Malibu "to supervise the transfer of a 28 kg of cocaine shipment from a Mexican source to Canadian couriers who were responsible for smuggling the cocaine through the United States into Canada," the Interpol document said.
The allegations have not been proven in court.