Canada Hopes U.S. Style Strikes Fear in Cartels

"In the staid circles of competition law, Mr. Mutchnik, former prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, is a rare celebrity. By getting anti-trust prosecutors to work with gun-toting FBI agents, he and a team of investigators worked with a senior Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. executive in the mid-1990s to expose an international price-fixing conspiracy on food additives.

The case sent three Archer-Daniels officials to jail and generated billions of dollars in fines and civil settlements. The pioneering use of wire taps, immunity deals and FBI muscle on the case inspired U.S. regulators to use similar techniques to bring down other cartels.

'It was five years of some of the most intense, enjoyable ... experiences. ... It had everything you could want. It had guns, criminals, travel, hookers, tapes, there was everything,' Mr. Mutchnik says."

This article appeared in its entirety in the January 27, 2010 edition of The Globe and Mail.