SNOWMOBILE TRACKS LEAD TO ELDERLY DRUG SMUGGLERS

Tracks in the snow led authorities to a retiree from Alberta now
awaiting sentencing for smuggling almost 400 kilograms of marijuana
into the United States over a frozen river in northern Minnesota.

Joseph Frederick Heater's cabin on the bank of the Rainy River is an
ideal place to enjoy the rugged natural splendour of northwestern Ontario.

It also proved the ideal staging ground for Heater, 65, to sneak
Canadian-grown marijuana just 500 metres across the border to a cabin
owned by his accomplice, a 63-year-old grandmother named Gail Darwin.

The pair may seem like unlikely drug runners, but they dealt in large
amounts of cash, used sophisticated electronic equipment to cross the
border without being detected and were hauling an amount of pot no
amateur criminal would be trusted with when they were arrested on April 17.

"That tells me they aren't virgins to this. You just don't give $4
million worth of dope to someone without any track record," said Sgt.
Bruce Grotberg of the Koochiching County Sheriff's Department.

Grotberg said the pair are part of a "well-oiled machine" moving
potent "B.C. bud" into the United States.

Both pleaded guilty last month to second-degree possession of a
controlled substance, which carries a minimum four-year sentence under
state sentencing guidelines.

Some U.S. news reports described Heater as a retired engineer from
Alberta with ties to Calgary. Heater himself, however, gave court
officials an Edmonton address.

Darwin is a Californian who showed up in Birchdale telling locals she
had found the perfect place to retire.

Just a day after a cabin overlooking the Canadian border went up for
sale, Darwin made a $150,000 cash down payment for the $250,000 property.

"She just went in and paid the price they were asking for -- there was
no wheeling and dealing," Grotberg said.

Darwin portrayed herself as a New Age practitioner who had inherited a
large amount of money.

According to documents filed in Koochiching district court,
authorities put Darwin and Heater under surveillance when a routine
check of the area by the U.S. Border Patrol spotted snowmobile tracks
running between Darwin's cabin and Heater's.

On April 16, border patrol agents spotted Heater on Darwin's property
with a rented vehicle and trailer. Later that day, he met Darwin at a
motel in nearby International Falls.

They arrested him the next day as he drove with the pot to meet
Darwin.