CANADIAN MAN, U.S. WOMAN GET PRISON FOR POT SMUGGLING

A Canadian man and an American woman were each sentenced to more than two
years in prison Monday in Duluth, Minnesota, for trying to smuggle 375
kilograms of marijuana into the United States from Canada.

Koochiching County Attorney Jennifer Hasbargen said Gail Darwin, 62, who
owned a home in northern Minnesota, and Joseph Heater, 65, a Canadian who
owns a house in Ontario across the border from Darwin's home, were each
sentenced to 27 and-a-half months in prison.

Last month they pleaded guilty to possessing 375 kilograms of marijuana
valued at $4 million U.S. Officials caught them this spring along the
border with the drugs stuffed in a trailer.

Hasbargen said Minnesota state sentencing guidelines call for a four-year
sentence, but it was reduced for various reasons including Darwin's health
issues and Heater's former service in the Canadian air force.

Hasbargen said their relatively clean criminal records and their ages were
considered during the sentencing. Darwin and Heater must serve two-thirds
of their sentences, or about one and-a-half years each, before being
eligible for parole.

The County Attorney said it was the largest drug seizure her office had
ever prosecuted.

U.S. Border Patrol agents seized hydroponically grown B.C. Bud -- an
expensive, high-grade form of marijuana -- after noticing sled tracks
between the Darwin and Heater homes.

Law enforcement officers have said the heavily forested U.S.-Canada border
in northern Minnesota has become a popular location for smuggling Canadian
marijuana headed for markets in the U.S. Upper Midwest.