BORDER GUARD BUSTED

A customs officer is behind bars after being caught with thousands of
dollars worth of pot at the Pacific Hwy. border crossing.

A Canada Customs officer caught smuggling marijuana across the Pacific
Hwy. border crossing said an Indo-Canadian gang forced him to do it.

Altaf Merali, a 37-year-old Surrey resident, was arrested at the
Surrey/Blaine border crossing on Tuesday with more than 90 kilograms
of marijuana, worth an estimated $680,000 U.S.

He had pulled up at the crossing in a 1992 GMC Safari, with his
uniform hanging in the rear window, and flashed his Canada Customs
badge when he approached the inspection booth.

However, a random computer selection picked Merali's van for a
secondary exam. Merali filled in a written baggage declaration, then
asked to speak to an officer in private, and confession to having the
pot.

He claimed he had been approached last November by a neighbour and a
man named Sam who wanted him to smuggle dope south and coke north
across the border.

Merali claimed Tuesday's run was the first time he brought marijuana
across the border.

He is charged under U.S. federal law with conspiracy to distribute
marijuana. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum prison term of
five years behind bars, with a maximum of 40 years and a $2 million
fine.

Merali made his first appearance before a U.S. magistrate judge in
Seattle on Wednesday, and will remain in jail pending the results of a
bail hearing, scheduled for Monday, May 9.