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Subscribe to RSSYou would think a drug runner would know better than to get into a car with a personalized license plate with the letters S-M-U-G-L-E-R.
Or that she would think twice before booking a room at the Smuggler's Inn, a mere sprint from the Canadian border.
Homeland Security agents received a tip in mid-December about a cocaine deal at a Pizza Hut in Bellingham, Wash., the SeattlePI.com reported, citing recently released court documents. They set up surveillance at the Pizza Hut and watched as a GMC Yukon with a driver and two passengers pulled in. The license plate read SMUGLER. (Washington state license plates allow only seven letters, hence the dropped "G.")
Agents followed the SUV to the Smuggler’s Inn, pulled it over and found, in a large, white box, nine bricks of cocaine weighing just under 24 pounds, the P-I reported. The driver, also the owner of the inn, said that he assumed it was a Christmas package, given the time of year.
One of the passengers, Jasmin Klair, 20, admitted that the illicit cargo was hers and agreed to cooperate with law enforcement officials, according to court documents. She explained to agents that she had been told to book at a bottom-floor room facing Canada at the Smuggler’s Inn, a bed and breakfast with rooms named "Al Capone" and "DB Cooper." Klair wanted the "Captain's Room," about 150 feet from the border.
Read the federal agent's complaint in the case
While agents interviewed her, she started receiving text messages from two men who had given her the job, the Vancouver Sun reported. Authorities prevailed on her to beckon the two men to the Smuggler’s Inn.
They arrived within minutes, the Sun reported, and made a run for it when police ordered them to stop.
One of the two men, Narminder Kaler, allegedly told agents that he would have received $2,000 for the deal, according to the Sun. He sorely needed it, he is alleged to have said, to pay off a $325,000 debt for losing 115 pounds of marijuana a year and a half ago.
Klair, 20, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiring to distribute cocaine, the P-I reported. She will be sentenced on May 29. Kaler and Gurjit Sandhu are in jail and face similar charges, according to the P-I.
Boulé, the Smuggler's Inn owner and driver of the SUV, took the recent events in stride. Last year, 57 people were arrested going through his property.
“It’s part of life on the border,” Boulé said. “The officers go through on the hour every hour. There are sensors in the yard. We’re on camera where we live.”
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Stupid is as Stupid does! Nuff said.
I agree.
Wait a dad gum minute.....Mrs. Napolitano says "our borders have never been more secure".
I suppose she forgot to consider all those homes/businesses which share the North border with our neighbors using chain link fences, or no fence at all.
Gotta love it when the criminals catch themselves. It's better than fishing when the fish actually jump into the boat.
Except the plates and hotel name had nothing to do with the bust.
ldo,
...your dad gum minute is over.
Yes the border up there IS secure. Bad guys got busted. Security worked perfectly. Or didn't you read the story.....?
What a joke this is..... SECURITY - BS - Local Law Enforcement could have handled this just fine..... This is really just another PR release to make us all feel so good about the rights we have lost.....
Wait that is CANADA!!!!!! We have to put up a wall between the U.S. and Canada too?
Three people are going to have a long time to consider their stupidity. But then stupid people always imagine, it isn't their fault.
OHGUY......ask the border patrol with what weapons, they have been shot at with and if they wear bullet proof material under their uniforms.
Remember these drug traffickers are almost as bad as terrorists. You GOT TO BE ABLE TO GUN THEM DOWN IN A TIGHT SPOT. I believe local police would be a little less prepared.
Um, did you miss the part where they were tipped off?
Stuff the nuff
Ido,
That is why the political parrot pulled CBP officers from the border - it's secure and not a smuggling route.
Whew, good thing they used all those resources to get 24 whole pom
Meanwhile real actual criminals at Pfizer and Monsanto continue to collect obscene bonuses for doing far more harm to this country than that 24 lbs of coke ever could and yet what they do is completely legal.
All these people crying about our "other border", should be happy now. We finally learned about some of the druggies up there getting busted.
The druggies you are talking about is one of your own ! American !
And?
apparently bart believes that no Americans touch the stuff once it crosses over from Mexico.
This happened about a mile from my house. Sleepy little town, tons of drugs being moved through here apparently. You'd think people would know better. There are 6 different kinds of cops up here waiting to bust everything they can.
This guy was doing this deal for 2000 bucks. Man, you can make that money in 30 days legitimately at min-wage working a McJob, but now this guy is going to do years (plural) in prison.
This is what you get for being bad.... AT MATH.
Actually Kato, minimum wage is $7.25/hr x 40 hrs/week = 290.00 x 4 weeks in a month = monthly income of $1160. Apparently, you're the one who is bad AT MATH.
My business degree says otherwise.
Washington state minimum wage is $9.04.
Average number of work days in a month is 22.
Before overtime, at 8 hours a day, thats $1584.
Working just a monthly total of only 30 over time hours would put that at just above $2,000 before tax. I used to do 20+ hours of overtime in a single week working a McJob while attending high school full time when I was 18.
Who's bad at math now? Or maybe, there's a work ethic issue involved as well as bad judgement?
That's funny!
"You would think a drug runner would know better than to get into a car with a personalized license plate with the letters S-M-U-G-L-E-R."
"They set up surveillance at the Pizza Hut and watched as a GMC Yukon with a driver and two passengers pulled in. The license plate read SMUGGLER."
Well, which was it? Welcome to the dumbing down of America, where the news editors don't spell any better than the readers.
um, save the rant, do some research. in washington state, you can only have 7 letters on a plate- most vanity plates drop double letters, shorten words, etc.
welcome to the dumbing down of america, indeed.
Thank you sikchimp (I probably would not have been as passive agressive in my indictment of this individual's cognitive abilities).
ZZ...go back to bed
You're both imbeciles, so the article found its correct audience. Two quotes from the same article giving two different spellings for the license plate. Looks like there's really no need for editing any more since the population has lost their ability to read and comprehend.
And aggressive has two g's.
Good one zz! You were commenting about the bad writing by the author of the article, and the other 2 are bringing in other facts that don't have to do with the bad writing. Silly
WOW! Can't fix STUPID...
I don't see how this could be seen as anything other than a B rated movie.
FIRST , I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE VINE FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO COMMENT ON THIS STORY ; what a fool , I BET HE'S A REPUBLICAN CAPITALIST OF THE BAIN CORPORATION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amazing... your ignorance and vitriol are second to.... well nothing.
so it's the hotel owner's car? some editing obviously took out an entire paragraph or something that talked about the owner, as that was all just thrown together in one line, acting like we know who boule is.
So, is the hotel owner going to be charged in this too? Since, it said, he drove the SUV to pizza hut with Klair riding in it, and he owned the hotel where they were staying at. Unless I somehow missed that in the article? Maybe I'm going crazy. Who knows?
And seriously, why is this making me create an account that I'm just going to forget about in 10 mins? Shoulda just let me post my comment.
sg1...you don't have to create an account, just uncheck the box that says post to my facebook wall before submitting. No you are not going crazy, that claim is indeed made. Also check the shoddy exposition in how they casually refer to Boule, the hotel owner, as if we should already know who he is and what his role is in this. Poorly written article, obviously was not even given a second glance, much less editor reviewed.
Yea who was Boule? and what was his part that threw me off as I reread the story to figure out what I overlooked. Had to read the fed agents report to get the true details.
Looked at the bed n breakfast, and check out the things to do in July: "WhiteRock, BC"-Tour de White Rock ha ha
It would be helpful if every plate gave you some knowledge about the driver. The problem is it's tough to fit narcissistic oblivious asshat on a plate and you would need many sets of said plates where I dwell..
I knew a guy years that got busted for dealing coke. His answering machine played "Smuggler's Blues" when you called him.
There is no such thing as partially secure.
they live here but not true americans....look at the names
Obviously, because everyone immigrating has their names changed at Ellis Island, which has been going on since America was colonized...
Oh, wait… They don’t do that anymore? You mean someone could immigrate and keep their family name, and then have children and grandchildren here who grow up in an American culture? How will we be able to discern who is “American” based solely on someone’s name? This throws a huge wrench in my plans for discriminatory practices…
Oh, wait, nevermind. You’ll find the true Americans on reservations selling fireworks, cheap tobacco and owning/operating casinos. Phew, glad that’s cleared up…
If it wasn't for some low life eating cheddar on them the cops wouldn't of had a clue. Too many Narcs out there let the Feds earn their paycheck. "It Aint Easy Beeing Cheesy"
At least they can see Canada from their window.
I had no idea we were employing ground sensors across the Northern border. Very cool tech. Similar stuff has been used in the State of Nevada for years (primarily around the test sites). Fascinating how the system works. Just read up a bit more on it -- not much to go on but it's awesome what we've developed over the last 15-20 years.
Did she stay at the Smugler's Inn for the professional discount? or free cross-border limo service? What kind of white powder do they put on the complimentary dough-nuts?
i've always been very proud of the fact that some of the dumbest criminals live in the good old usa. we're #1.
How do you know she wasn't engaged in a clever ploy to hide in plain sight? It's brilliant!
Yeah, I thought we could all use another laugh. :)
Hiding in plain sight is brilliant only if it works. It didn't this time.
So here's what it sounds like: It sounds like Boule, the owner of Smuggler's Inn, owned the SUV and he got cutesy with the plates, titling it SMUGLER for his own advertising campaign. The young woman, probably not really thinking about it, or maybe the guys who told her to go there thought it was ironic, got in the SUV. She was the smuggler, perhaps unbeknownst to Boule who was making a courtesy pickup from an airport/train station, etc. The authorities were tipped off, maybe that's why Boule picked her up, maybe not. But they were tracking her and that's how it really all went down - not because she got into an SUV driven by a mean-looking drug dealer who got brave with his plates.
That's just my 2 cents. Feel free to spend it however you'd like.
Now that shows stupidity.
Kinda like having an Obama bumper sticker on you car!
And we are still losing the so called war on drugs.
I was staying at the Eden Rock Hotel in Miami Beach 4 years ago and rapper Fat Joe was living there. His Silver Cloud Rolls Royce was parked out front of the lobby with gold embossed license plates that said 'Crack Head'......you gotta wonder about these folks.
think he has any for sale?