GUILTY PLEAS EXPECTED IN COUPLE'S METH CASE

A husband and wife caught up in allegations they helped smuggle the
raw ingredient for methamphetamine from Canada to drug labs in the
United States will likely plead guilty rather than go to trial, the
prosecutor handling the case said.

Hugh Stevens and Sandra Jacobi will agree to a deal that will see him
get a 13-year prison sentence and her a three-year sentence, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Thomas Duszkiewicz said.

Both are expected to enter pleas in Buffalo, N.Y. before Christmas for
their part in the drug ring that had Manitoba connections.

Stevens, 61, and Jacobi, 50, are the last defendants to agree to plea
deals -- all other major suspects arrested in Buffalo and Sacramento,
Calif. have already agreed to co-operate with authorities.

But the case is far from over as those arrested in Canada have yet to
go to trial.

Preliminary hearing dates for two of the suspects start Feb. 4 next
year.

The case centres on how bulk amounts of ephedrine -- the prime
ingredient in methamphetamine -- ended up in a California meth lab
controlled by the Mexican Mafia.

The ephedrine was legally imported into Canada through a Thunder Bay,
Ont., company, but allegedly diverted onto the black market. Ephedrine
is banned in the U.S. Its sale is regulated in Canada by Health Canada.

Two of the eight Canadian defendants are no longer alive to be
prosecuted.

Lac du Bonnet resident Rodger Bruneau Sr. was charged as being the
ring's kingpin, but he died in his sleep of an accidental drug
overdose more than two years ago.

A 10th defendant, Emmanuel (Manny) Barbagianis, was shot to death in
Winnipeg more than a year ago. His slaying remains unsolved.

Duszkiewicz said it's possible once the case ends in Canada, which
could take years, it's possible U.S. authorities could try to
extradite Canadian defendants to face prosecution in the U.S.

He also said once Stevens is finished his sentence he'll be deported
to Scotland. Stevens was born in Scotland and though he has lived in
Canada and the U.S., he is a citizen of neither country.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents, RCMP and Winnipeg police
arrested about 90 people in the smuggling scheme in September 2004.

It's alleged Bruneau and Stevens recruited other people to use cars,
trucks and horse trailers to move hundreds of pounds of ephedrine from
Canada into the U.S. through the Niagara-Buffalo region.

In July 2004, police found 195 kilograms of ephedrine hidden with a
horse in a trailer that they had followed from a racetrack outside
Hamilton, Ont., across the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge.

RCMP officers from Winnipeg were set to testify at Stevens' and
Jacobi's trial next month, but that was put on hold when the couple
notified the court of their intention to accept plea agreements.

Both could have faced much longer prison terms if convicted on all
charges at trial.