AGE A FACTOR IN SMUGGLING SENTENCE

A 70-year-old Surrey man learned this week he will spend two years in
a U.S. prison for his role in trying to smuggle ecstasy pills through
the Pacific Highway border.

Judge Thomas Zilly told Amar Kumar Dutt the sentence for his
conspiracy to distribute ecstasy charge was light only because of the
senior's advanced age and health problems.

"If you were 25 years old this is not the sentence I would give you,"
Zilly said in a Jan. 14 statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle.

According to the statement, Dutt was arrested on May 29, 2009, after
more than 40,000 ecstasy pills packaged in plastic bags were found
floating in the gas tank of a southbound minivan.

Officers became suspicious of Dutt after he told an inspector he was
heading south to look for "healing crystals." A detector dog alerted
officers to the vehicle's gas tank.

At the time, officials estimated the value of the drugs at $500,000.

At sentencing Thursday, Dutt expressed embarrassment and remorse, the
statement notes.

His attorney, Paula Deutsch, told the court Dutt met someone three
years ago who got him into smuggling. The attorney's office did not
identify the individual.

Prosecutor Michael Scoville noted the older, soft-spoken Dutt was
used as a mule.

"Drug trafficking organizations, and the innocent-looking couriers
they often recruit to do their dirty work, need to know that even
people like Mr. Dutt will pay a price if they are caught in the act
of smuggling large quantities of drugs into the United States," reads
an excerpt from Scoville's sentencing report.

Following his jail term, Dutt will be subject to three years of
supervised release.