IF SENT TO U.S., STUDENT RISKS 13 YEARS FOR SMUGGLING POT

Family is hoping justice minister rejects extradition order on humanitarian
grounds

A 23-year-old college student from Hamilton, Ont., risks a minimum 13-year
prison sentence after a judge ordered her extradition to Florida yesterday
to stand trial on marijuana- and ecstasy-smuggling charges.

Jennifer Ridge will receive a lengthy sentence - if she is ultimately
convicted - as a result of strict U.S. drug laws. The equivalent offence in
Canada for someone with no prior record would normally result in a sentence
of about three years in prison.

Ridge is alleged to be a low-level "mule" in the Hamilton branch of a
drug-smuggling ring smashed last year in a joint U.S.-Canada investigation
known as Operation Candy Box.

More than 140 people were arrested in both countries, with the alleged
operational and financial masterminds based in Toronto and Ottawa.

Ridge was arrested along with her boyfriend Tuan Van Pham in March 2004, a
few weeks after U.S. agents "surreptitiously seized" her car in Buffalo.

About 30,000 ecstasy tablets and approximately four kilograms of marijuana
were found in the car, according to documents filed in Ontario Superior
Court.

The potential U.S. sentence is "out of proportion" to the alleged crime,
said Ridge's lawyer Heather McArthur, who suggested it should not "result in
the loss of 13 years of a young life."

The Mohawk College business student is alleged to have made regular trips
with Pham to Florida to smuggle the drugs.

Pham is accused of being a high-level member of the drug ring. The
allegations in the extradition documents also suggest there is evidence that
Ridge was aware of the marijuana smuggling but not necessarily the ecstasy
smuggling.

Ridge had been free on bail for the past 14 months. She was ordered into
custody yesterday by Superior Court Justice Sandra Chapnik, who signed the
committal order for her extradition.

The young woman left home in Hamilton at the age of 16 and ended up with the
"wrong crowd," at a bar where she worked, McArthur said yesterday.

Ridge has reconnected with her family and just finished her second year of a
business program at Mohawk College in Hamilton.

The federal justice minister must approve any extradition request, and
McArthur said she hopes Irwin Cotler "will look at all the circumstances" of
her client's case.

"He could refuse (to sign) on humanitarian grounds," said McArthur, or
decline to extradite Ridge on the ecstasy charge, which by itself carries a
10-year minimum sentence.

McArthur said her client has the support of her family and even her high
school English teacher, who wrote a letter to the court on behalf of the
former student. The potential U.S. prison sentence is "overwhelming" for the
family, said her 19-year-old sister, Jaime-Lee Ridge.

Ridge now has 30 days to make legal submissions to Cotler before he makes
any decision on the extradition order.