U.S. BORDER AGENT FACES DRUG SMUGGLING CHARGE

An eight-year veteran of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency
has been arrested by his colleagues for allegedly attempting to
smuggle 243 kilograms of B.C. bud across the border.

Cory Whitfield, 35, was arrested at the Aldergrove crossing at Lynden,
Wash., on Monday morning when he allegedly tried to cross the border
in a van with B.C. plates.

According to court documents, agents found the marijuana sealed in
plastic in drawers and cupboards in the back of the van.

"He was arrested for possession and importation of a controlled
substance," said Mike Milne, spokesman for the agency, adding that an
arrest of an agent whose job it is to ensure drugs and other
contraband don't get into the U.S. is "very unusual."

Milne said Whitfield worked for two years at the border in Blaine, but
has spent the last six years as a U.S. customs agent at Vancouver
airport where his job was to screen U.S.-bound travellers.

Court documents say Whitfield, who lives in Point Roberts with his
wife and two children, told border agents he was headed to Bellingham
to deliver a car engine to a friend and that he did not own the van he
was driving.

The documents say Whitfield claimed he was the "fall guy" in the
alleged trafficking scheme centered in Surrey and that if he talked he
would be a "dead man."

The documents say Whitfield admitted to agents that he has taken
marijuana across the border once before under similar circumstances.
On this particular run, he was supposed to have the van at Bellis Fair
Mall at noon.

Whitfield said the Surrey connection had threatened him with
photographs showing him in compromising situations involving drugs and
a sexual encounter with a woman at a party if he did not do what he
was told.

Whitfield made his first appearance in federal court in Seattle
yesterday. Emily Langlie of the U.S. Attorney's Office said Whitfield
is charged with possessing a controlled substance with intention to
distribute and importing a controlled substance.

Langlie said the marijuana has an estimated street value in Seattle of
about $1.6 million US, where a pound of B.C. bud typically sells for
$3,000 to $4,000.

Whitfield faces up to 40 years behind bars.

The arrest comes just days after border patrol agents in Lynden
thwarted a would-be smuggler who was attempting to drive into the U.S.
in a truck carrying 306 kilograms of marijuana.

The man was trying to escape from agents when his truck got stuck and
he ran back to Canada. He was not found but police did find 11 hockey
bags filled with marijuana worth an estimated $2.4 million US.