An international drug-smuggling operation centred in the Fraser Valley had nothing to do with the Hells Angels or any other B.C. gang, one of the convicted smugglers says.

Jody York said the scheme to move thousands of kilos of marijuana across the U.S. border was hatched by a few friends who grew up together in the Abbotsford area.

York and several other B.C. men are to be sentenced in a Seattle courtroom March 25 after working out a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney, who wants York behind bars for six years.

Washington state law-enforcement agencies have said that York's group, headed by convicted trafficker Rob Shannon, was working on behalf of the B.C. Hells Angels, a claim York denies. "We were never a gang or thought of ourselves as a gang. We were antigang. We hated most clubs and groups out there and never wanted to be a part of their drama or inner crap," York said in a letter to U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert Lasnik.

"As for working for the Hells Angels, nothing could be further from the truth. When I was involved, we wanted to stay as far away from them, due to a fight I had with a member in a night club. I just knew how they worked things. As for them or anyone else being involved with other people in this case, after I left, it is not, nor do I want to make it, my business.