In 1979 a group of Cali, Colombia marijuana traffickers headed by Jaime deJesus Cordoba-Vargas and Jaime deJesus Marin-Jaramillo organized a venture to smuggle marijuana into the U.S. aboard the 168-foot (51 m) motor vessel Samarkanda, a surplus U.S. Navy net tender converted to a tugboat and once called Alexandra.

The standard procedure for the group was to load contraband on "mother ships" in South America, sail north, then rendezvous with smaller "contact" vessels off the U.S. coast.

The agents began to track Nelson in May as he acquired a custom-built trailer near Seattle, two yachts, the 35-foot (11 m) Schnapps and the 55-foot (17 m) Whitecap, and a 26-foot (7.9 m) motorhome.

Agents watched while Nelson, Michael William Butler of Westport, Washington, Jaime Marin-Jaramillo and Roy David Thompson, a ham radio operator, installed radios in boats, a pickup truck, and the motor home, and gathered supplies for a long trip.

At the same time, Samarkanda left from Tumaco, Colombia under the command of Marco Antonio Lopera-Penago with the intentions of smuggling cannabis to Juneau, Alaska.

Captain Lopera, guided by Perka, headed the ship west, then north, staying several hundred miles off the U.S. coast.

During the voyage to Alaska the ship encountered engine problems due to contaminated fuel and overheating generators.

In Seattle, agents watched Paul Nelson and Roy Thompson as they parked the motorhome on a hill, erected a long antenna, and made contact with Samarkanda.

Roy Thompson drove the motorhome to the highest point in Puget Sound, Mount Constitution on Orcas Island.

The U.S. agents notified the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which launched an air reconnaissance of the coast of Vancouver Island.

The Mounties then fielded an elaborate surveillance of the area using a fishing boat, mountain top observation posts, and periodic flyovers.

Fearing that the boat might capsize, Captain Lopera ordered his men to unload the cargo of bales containing marijuana.

U.S. agents arrested Roy Thompson on Mount Constitution in Washington where he had established a radio station for the enterprise.

The Crown argued that the defendants were arrested while moving supplies onto shore which expressed an intention to stay in Canada.

The trial judge had instructed them to consider if the crew's situation was so dire that a reasonable doubt was raised as to whether or not their decision to land in Canada was justified.

The defence, Dickson described, was a rare exception that would only be allowed when there was clear "involuntariness" where the accused was "strictly controlled and scrupulously limited".