U.S. CUSTOMS AGENT RELEASED ON BAIL

Man Accused of Taking Money, Sex for Allowing Drugs to Cross Is Back in Surrey

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer accused of taking money
and sex in exchange for allowing drugs into the U.S. was released on
bail in the States yesterday and returned to his home in Surrey.

Desmone Bastian, 30, is an American but lives in Surrey with his
Canadian wife and their 11-month-old child.

"His world's kind of upside down," said Bastian's Seattle lawyer,
Michael Nance. "It wouldn't be normal if he wasn't upset."

Bastian is charged with taking a bribe and with smuggling about 100
kilograms of marijuana across the border from Canada into the U.S. in
February 2005.

The woman who allegedly provided the sex-for-smuggling was a prostitute.

"It's not like he had to drive the truck," said U.S. Attorney's
office spokeswoman Emily Langlie. "He aided and abetted the
importation from a place outside the U.S."

Bastian pleaded not guilty Oct. 26. He denies any knowledge of the
marijuana shipment, and as for the charge of aiding smuggling in
exchange for sex and money, "he denies that there was any quid pro
quo, that he was doing stuff for pay," Nance said.

At a detention hearing Tuesday, further information emerged about how
the investigation developed.

Bastian first came to the attention of authorities in March when a
woman was caught trying to cross the border into the U.S. at the
Pacific Highway crossing carrying 3,000 pills of OxyContin, an
addictive opiate painkiller often sold as a street drug.

Bastian left his post at another checkpoint lane and walked over to
where the woman was being detained, in an apparent effort to
intervene, Langlie said. Agents discovered Bastian's phone number on
the woman's cellphone.

"He admitted knowing her, but said she called him out of the blue,"
Langlie said.

Phone records showed additional calls between the two.

The federal probe also found the woman had made multiple border
crossings over the previous two years, and had gone through Bastian's
lane six or seven times while he was on duty, without being sent for
a secondary check.

The woman pleaded guilty to smuggling drugs and told investigators
she was a prostitute who owned an escort business.

She said Bastian had entered her business in uniform, and talked to
her alone and in front of others about border security.

She said she had smuggled ecstasy and pot as well as OxyContin, and
once met Bastian at a Shell gas station in Blaine for a sexual
encounter after she made a drug run, Langlie said.

Bastian is charged only in relation to the pot shipment last Feb. 25.

"[He] failed to inspect vehicles and persons entering the United
States and failed to prevent the introduction of contraband into the
United States," the Oct. 25 indictment reads.

The amount of money he's alleged to have accepted has not yet been made public.

It's "always possible" that Bastian will be charged with additional
offences, Langlie said.

In court Tuesday, a federal judge ruled Bastian could return to
Surrey pending trial if he posted a $20,000 US bond and handed over
his passport. Canadian authorities will supervise him in B.C., and he
is prohibited from travelling beyond Surrey or western Washington.

Bastian faces five to 40 years in prison on the smuggling charge, and
up to 15 years on the bribery charge. "It seems to me that this is
based on circumstantial evidence, plus the word of this woman that
has every reason to point a finger of blame to divert it from
herself," Nance said.

Bastian's trial is set for Jan. 2.