Camouflaged Canadian’ nabbed at U.S. border with sled full of drugs

source msn

The 21-year-old Canadian man, clad in winter camouflage, slipped across the U.S. border near a tiny Vermont town early Wednesday morning. Behind him, he pulled a sled packed with nearly 200 pounds of aprazolam, more commonly known as the prescription drug Xanax, authorities said.

Federal officials said they arrested Cedrick Bourgault-Morin, of Quebec, after he tripped sensors along a railroad track about 1 a.m. near the border village of North Troy, Vt. — an area known as a popular route for smuggling drugs and other contraband into the United States.

Three U.S. Border Patrol agents responded to the alerts, according to details released by the U.S. attorney’s office in Vermont. One tracked the suspected smuggler’s footprints in the snow, beginning at the border. Two other agents positioned themselves south of the “Camouflaged Canadian,” where they soon spotted him walking along the train tracks, pulling a sled wrapped in white camouflage.

The agents descended on Bourgault-Morin and seized his drug-laden sled, according to reports. On it was a duffle bag that agents said contained 300 vacuum-sealed bags filled with pills bearing “markings consistent with those used to identify Xanax.” The drug, a benzodiazepine typically prescribed to treat anxiety and panic disorders, is a federally controlled substance. The amount Bourgault had on his sled: 182 pounds of pills, worth an estimated $1.6 million.

Prosecutors hinted in court filings that Bourgault-Morin likely had not acted alone, according to the Burlington Free Press.

“The circumstances of his offense indicate he had the assistance of co-conspirators on the Canadian side of the border, and he was anticipating assistance of co-conspirators on the American side of the boarder,” an assistant federal prosecutor wrote in a request to keep Bourgault-Morin in jail without bail while awaiting a hearing next week.

Authorities said Bourgault-Morin could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. He is being represented by the federal public defender’s office in Vermont. The office confirmed it is representing him but declined comment on the case

In: Other News
Tags: border, drugs, xanex, drug smuggling,