COURTENAY MAN FACES U.S. DRUG CHARGES

Pilot Arrested, Jailed In Washington State After Carrying Out
Suspected Marijuana Drop

The former owner of a defunct Campbell River airline is scheduled to
appear in a Spokane, Wash., court today on charges of possession of
ecstasy and 100 kilograms of marijuana with intent to distribute.

The value of the drugs is $2 million US and the Cessna 185, $300,000.
All have been seized by police.

Kevin Haughton, 41, of Courtenay, has been held in the Spokane County
jail since his arrest Wednesday on the Colville Indian
Reservation.

On March 14, officers found a pilot unloading hockey bags from a
Cessna 185 onto the shore of the Columbia River between Grand Coulee
and Chief Joseph Dams. The pilot paddled the plane across the river
and fled on foot, eluding sheriff's deputies equipped with dirt bikes,
night-vision goggles and a tracking dog.

Tribal police arrested Haughton after an officer noticed him walking
near the tribe's government complex, Colville Tribal Police Chief Rory
Gilliland told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Haughton told police he was part of a search team looking for a pilot
of a float plane carrying marijuana and had got separated from others,
said Gilliland.

He matched the description of the pilot spotted the day before,
Gilliland added.

Tribal police believe that a float plane has been used in at least two
other marijuana drops in the last four months. Two men have been
arrested after they retrieved drugs from the earlier drops.

This time, Haughton was the only one arrested.

Haughton operated Rush Air, based on the Campbell River spit, but shut
down the airline in March 2002.

If convicted, Haughton faces some serious jail time, said Thomas O.
Rice, assistant U.S. attorney.

"The penalty is mandatory five years, so no less than five and no more
than 40 years in prison," said Rice by phone from Spokane.

The matter will be put to a grand jury who will determine if the case
will go to trial.

Charging Canadians for drug smuggling "is all too common," Rice
said.

"Canada has a billion-dollar industry of growing marijuana and
distributing it into the United States ... we are incarcerating a very
high rate of Canadians at this point."

Investigators are continuing to check on whomever was supposed to pick
up the drugs at the scene, said Rice.

Most of the foreign-produced marijuana available in the U.S. arrives
from Mexico, reports the National Drug Assessment for 2006. But
there's a sharp rise in marijuana smuggling from Canada, primarily by
Asian criminal groups, according to the report.