TUNNEL BUILDERS GET NINE YEARS

Term Should Send Message, Judge Says

VANCOUVER - It cost $16,000 for lumber to build an underground tunnel
between Canada and the United States and 90 kilograms of marijuana
were transported before police shut down operations after months of
watching the builders haul in wood and concrete.

Now a U.S. district court judge has given three B.C. men a nine-year
sentence for building the 110-metre tunnel and importing marijuana.

Francis Raj, Timothy Woo, and Jonathan Valenzuela, all from British
Columbia, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import marijuana and were
sentenced yesterday in a U.S. district court in Seattle.

The lengthy jail sentences, almost double what their lawyers
recommended, should send a clear message to drug traffickers, Judge
John Coughenour said during sentencing yesterday.

"This is a serious problem and one we need to get a message out
[about] to people in Canada," he said. "This is not a good way to make
money."

It could have been an excellent way to make money for the men
convicted, according to law enforcement officials.

Transporting drugs through the tunnel could have generated $165,000
(U.S.) per day.

To build the tunnel, two properties were purchased, one in Aldergrove
for $595,000 (Canadian) and a second on the other side of the border,
in Lynden, Wa., for $215,000 (U.S.). The cost to construct the tunnel,
set out in court documents, included $16,156.80 for wooden boards,
$1,742.82 for 125 bags of concrete to make the shaft and $259 for a
garage door opener.

The plan was to import more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana into the
United States just to cover the costs of the tunnel, the U.S. District
Attorney calculated.

Mr. Valenzuela, one of the men sentenced, said 120 kilograms of
cocaine was smuggled into Canada from the United States in June, 2005,
a month before the three men were arrested.

The tunnel was a gold mine for the defendants, according to the
testimony of one American law enforcement officer.

Mr. Raj, who paid for the building materials for the tunnel, offered
one person his share of the tunnel for $3-million; 10 per cent was to
be used to pay off Vietnamese gangs for a load of marijuana lost prior
to the construction of the tunnel.

The tunnel was the first found between the United States and Canada,
although tunnels between Mexico and the United States have been
uncovered before. They were mainly used for smuggling illegal immigrants.

Canada's Border Services Agency first noticed the tunnel in February,
2005, and U.S. and Canadian police began monitoring activities using
audio and video surveillance.

"The very essence of this crime was ignoring the international
border," said Doug Whalley of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The three men can apply after a year to be transferred to a Canadian
facility, but Mr. Whalley said his office will argue that they should
serve their entire sentence in the United States.

While prosecutors argued the men should serve at least 10 years, their
lawyers argued five years was appropriate.

Mr. Raj's lawyer, Richard Troberman, said there was no evidence in the
hundreds of phone calls intercepted by police that the men were
planning to transport more marijuana. The tunnel builders were
entirely dependent on finding others who would be willing to pay them
to transport marijuana.

The government's argument that a high volume of drugs needed to be
transported in order to recoup the investment of tunnel construction
is faulty and based on false premises, Mr. Troberman argued.

Aside from the properties purchased, the actual cost of the tunnel was
around $23,000, he argued.

Mr. Troberman said his client's "industrial nature and work ethic is,
somewhat perversely, exemplified by the construction of the tunnel.

"Without an engineering background, Francis managed to build the
tunnel to high standards," his lawyer said. "The fact that three
amateurs could line up the tunnel so that it ended in the right spot
is somewhat remarkable."

Mr. Troberman said he is hopeful that Mr. Raj can devote his time and
energy to more legitimate enterprises.

Mr. Raj, who presented letters from friends and supporters, including
one who told the judge that the man regularly took the elderly to
temple, said he left school, where he planned to study to be a
pharmacist, in order to save enough money.

"Things didn't work out the way I planned," Mr. Raj, 31, said in his
letter of apology to the judge. "I am sorry that I caused a threat to
the security of the border."

Cost of the tunnel

Law-enforcement officials and the office of the U.S. Attorney
calculated the cost of constructing the 110-metre tunnel under the
B.C.-Washington border.

Using receipts, and checking the Internet sites visited by the three
men convicted of building the tunnel, they pieced together the price
(all figures are in Canadian funds, and don't include sales tax):

Two properties: Purchased on both sides of border, approximately
$815,000.

Lumber: Two-by-six boards to line the tunnel, $16,156.80.

Concrete: 125 bags, used to make the shaft, $1,742.82.

Sump pumps: $288.

Garage door opener: $259.