Canadian Drug Smuggler ‘Russian Mike’ Linked to El Chapo Sentenced to 15 Years in U.S.

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Mykhaylo Koretskyy, alias “Russian Mike,” was handed the sentence in a New York courtroom last month.

Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted by Mexican soldiers after his re-capture in 2016. 

A Canadian cocaine smuggler who worked with the leader of Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa cartel has been sentenced to 15 years in a US prison after pleading guilty last December.

Mykhaylo Koretskyy, alias “Russian Mike,” was handed the sentence in a New York courtroom last month by U.S. District Court Judge Paul A. Crotty.

U.S. court documents obtained by Postmedia say that Koretskyy, 46, travelled to Mazatlan to meet Sinaloa boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman in March 2013.

“They discussed the price of cocaine in Canada, how the defendant could transport cocaine for the cartel through Canada, and how much money the defendant would be paid,” a sentencing memo filed by the U.S. Attorney said. “The defendant then participated in at least three loads of cocaine with the cartel.”

Koretskyy worked in the drug trade with former B.C. resident Ryan Wedding, who has been a fugitive since being charged in 2015 after a major RCMP investigation dubbed Operation Harrington. Also charged in Operation Harrington was former Vancouver resident Philipos Kollaros, who was later shot to death in Montreal in 2018. Another associate identified in the Canadian drug probe, Jahanbakhsh Meshkati, died in a targeted shooting in Burnaby in August 2014.

Identified as Guzman’s main Canadian contact in the U.S. documents is Stephen Tello, a former Toronto real estate agent convicted of importing cocaine in the Harrington case in 2019 and sentenced to 15 years.

The sentencing memo filed in the U.S. case by Koretskyy said he only got mixed up with smuggling cocaine because “his business had fallen into arrears, and he had borrowed a large amount of money” from a man only identified as “Sergei.”

“When Sergei demanded repayment and Mr. Koretskyy did not have the money, Sergei demanded he participate in the instant conspiracy,” the memo said.

He said “Sergei” introduced him to Tello, who was supposed to accompany Koretskky to Mexico to meet Sinaloa contacts back in 2013.

But Tello missed his flight and Koretskyy “ended up traveling alone to meet with the most powerful drug cartel in the entire world,” his memo said.

Koretskyy said he was “transported blindfolded an hour and a half into the Sinaloan countryside to a warehouse to meet Alex Cifuentes, El Chapo’s right-hand man.”

“Mr. Koretskyy was surrounded by over 40 men armed with rifles and asked by Alex if he knew who El Chapo and the Sinaloa Cartel were. Mr. Koretskyy answered no and the men laughed. Alex showed him news articles on a tablet and it dawned on Mr. Koretskyy how deeply his desperation had taken him.

“After a brief discussion of the cartel’s plans for Canada, he was given a Blackberry to coordinate and flown back to Canada.”

But the U.S. Attorney said that Koretskyy is minimizing his role in drug smuggling, when in reality he “helped Chapo and the Sinaloa Cartel expand its reach through the United States north to the fertile Canadian market.

“In the process, he distributed and conspired to distribute hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, enough individual doses of poison to destroy countless families and communities.”

The memo noted that Koretskyy “describes only part of the (Mexican) trip, admitting that he met with Alex Cifuentes but failing to acknowledge that he also met with Chapo.”

And it said the Canadian’s claim that it was Sergei who got him involved doesn’t ring true.

“Incredulously, he claims that he had no prior involvement in the cocaine trade before flying down to Mexico to meet with the leaders of the largest and most violent cocaine distribution organization in the world, and goes so far as to claim that he did not even recognize Chapo’s name before this meeting. This defies common sense.”

In 2011, El Chapo “sought to expand his narcotics trafficking operation in Canada because the price per kilogram of cocaine was higher in Canada than in the United States,” the U.S. document said. “During an early meeting with Chapo, Chapo informed CS-2 that they were earning between $3 million and $4 million per week selling narcotics in Canada.”

Some of those people involved in the operation became confidential sources (CS) for the Americans, leading to Guzman’s U.S. conviction and life sentence in 2019.

Vancouver Sun