TALE OF TRUCKER BUSTED SMUGGLING DRUGS IS A LESSON FOR US ALL

As anybody familiar with the Internet knows, get-rich schemes,
however tantalizing they may seem, rarely offer the big money their
promoters say they will. And sometimes they can land ordinary families
in a ton of trouble.

At least that is what B.C. trucker Bob Smith (not his real name)
discovered when he got busted recently with a load of illegal
contraband, after being promised a large sum of money to run it across
the border.

A first-time offender with no criminal record, he found himself under
arrest, facing cocaine charges. And as Province reporter Matthew
Ramsey noted in the Sunday Province, the thirty-something Smith is now
serving his sentence in a B.C. jail.

"Everybody out there at one point or another has financial problems.
You look for ways to get out of that trouble," he said. "You just see
the dollar signs."

Smith acknowledges that part of the reason he may have been approached
was because he is easygoing and a bit gullible.

Now he is left with the guilt of having brought shame to his family --
and the financial burden of having lost both the promised payout and
the wages he'd have earned if he were still working.

Police say truck owner-operators are especially vulnerable to come-ons
from organized crime groups -- and to possible violence, if a drug
deal goes sour. The best guide for truckers is the same as it is for
everybody else: If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.