U.S. HOUSE AT END OF DRUG-SMUGGLING TUNNEL BELONGS TO A SPOKANE COUPLE

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The house at the U.S. end of a 110-metre
drug-smuggling tunnel from Aldergrove belongs to a Spokane couple, a
U.S. newspaper says.

Three Canadian men were arrested in connection with the case.

The tunnel, reinforced with wooden supports and rebar, stretched from
a metal hut in B.C. to a point underneath the living room of a house
in Lynden, Wash.

The house is owned by Raman and Kusum Patel, according to the Whatcom
County Assessor's website. The website indicates the couple bought a
home in the Mead area of Spokane County in July 2003.

Neighbours told the Spokesman-Review newspaper that the Patels live
at the Mead home. There was no immediate response to a message left
on a telephone-answering machine at the only residential listing for
Patel in the area.

A U.S. federal search warrant was served at the Mead house Thursday,
spokesman Jeff Eig with the Seattle bureau of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration said.

No arrests were made following the search and Eig would not say
whether the Patels are considered part of the investigation.

Charged in U.S. District Court in Seattle with conspiracy to
distribute marijuana and conspiracy to import marijuana were Francis
Devandra Raj, 30, Timothy Woo, 34 and Jonathan Valenzuela, 27, all of Surrey.

More than 30 tunnels have been found at the southern border dividing
the U.S. and Mexico but this is the first one discovered on the
U.S.-Canadian border, officials said.

Investigators used a "sneak-and-peak" warrant available under the
U.S. Patriot Act to enter the U.S. house July 2 and later installed
cameras and listening devices in the home. Through those devices,
authorities said they observed the defendants make multiple trips
through the tunnel carrying large hockey bags or garbage bags later
determined to contain marijuana.

B.C. marijuana activist Marc Emery said the sophisticated tunnel will
inflate Vancouver's reputation for weed.

"It will remind Americans that we're producing pot and we're trying
to get it to them in any way possible," he said. "I was crushed to
discover [the tunnel] had been discovered so early in its history."