BUILDERS OF TUNNEL GET NINE YEARS IN U.S. PRISON

The three men who tunnelled under the U.S.-Canada border in Langley
have received a tough nine-year prison sentence.

The term will be served in an American prison. All three Surrey men
were arrested when they emerged from the tunnel's south side,
following a cross-border investigation.

The sentence imposed on Francis Devandra Raj, 31, Timothy Woo, 35, and
Jonathan Valenzuela, 28, was almost twice the term sought by defence
lawyers in the case, said Emily Langley of the United States
Attorney's Office.

The lengthy sentence was partly due to the tunnel's potential threat
to national security. Anything from people to weapons could have been
moved through the secret passageway.

The 110-metre tunnel was discovered during construction last summer,
when sharp-eyed border guards saw materials going into, and dirt
coming out of, a quonset hut on the Canadian side near 264th St.

The three men built the tunnel using more than a thousand 2x6 wood
supports. It was ventilated and equipped with electrical lights.

They were planning to run marijuana through the tunnel, avoiding
border patrols and police.

However, police had searched the properties secretly before the tunnel
was even finished. All three men were arrested at the end of an early
drug transportation run. The tunnel was revealed to the public on July
20.

The Township spent $30,000 filling in its end of the tunnel, but
managed to recover the costs later.

It is the only tunnel ever discovered under the U.S.-Canadian border.
Several have been found under America's border with Mexico.