TRAFFICKING PAIR JAILED BUT GET TO KEEP GOLD TEETH

Two Washington state men with gold teeth who smuggled guns into
Canada and drugs into the U.S. have been jailed.

Donald Jamar Lewis, 27, was sentenced Friday to 16 years and Flenard
Neal, 25, got 14 years.

"We hope that we never find a person was killed by one of the guns
you trafficked up there [to Canada]," Judge Ronald Leighton said in
U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Neal was arrested in December 2005 trying to enter the U.S. with
marijuana and ecstasy pills stuffed into the doors of his car.

In January 2006, police found guns, cocaine and marijuana in the
apartment the pair shared in Lakewood.

Later that month, Canadian customs officers at the Vancouver mail
centre X-rayed a package sent from Tacoma to a B.C. address and found
two loaded handguns inside. The package was traced to Neal and Lewis.

In the spring of 2006, U.S. officials tried to seize their gold
ornamental teeth as proceeds of crime. "Grills" -- slang for the
cosmetic dental appliances -- can cost as much as $25,000. The men's
lawyers argued successfully that removing the grills would hurt their
clients' dental health.