FORMER BORDER INSPECTOR GETS 5-YEAR JAIL TERM

Caught Smuggling Pot Into U.S.

ROSEAU, Minn - A former border inspector with the Canadian Border
Services Agency was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for
his part in smuggling more than 50 kilos of marijuana into the United
States on two separate occasions.

"The real criminals got away," a handcuffed Emerson resident Gary John
Graboski said as a sheriff's officer escorted him out of the courthouse.

Graboski, 36, wearing a orange prison jump suit, also said he got
involved in drug smuggling "for financial reasons".

His conviction is believed to be the only case of a CBSA employee
being successfully recruited, because of his position, to smuggle drugs.

Prosecutors also say the case is significant because it highlighted
just how vulnerable some areas of the Canada-U.S. border are despite
increased security measures taken by both governments after the Sept.
11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

"This case is a real embarrassment," Roseau County Attorney Michelle
Moren said. "People in these positions are held to a higher standard
and it's absolutely reprehensible when they abuse that authority," she
said. Police haven't said publicly whether organized crime was
involved, but sources say Graboski fell in with an Asian-based crime
ring that was growing marijuana in Winnipeg and smuggling it into the
northwestern U.S.

Moren said Graboski has told officials he did it so he could make
enough money to buy a new truck.

Graboski was caught last May 13 moments after he drove his green 1996
GMC pickup across the small Pink Creek border crossing.

Agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the United
States Border Patrol and the Manitoba Integrated Organized Crime Task
Force (MIOCTF) were watching him.

Once Graboski cleared the border he drove "at a high rate of speed"
towards Roseau, Minn.

Investigators asked that a Roseau County deputy sheriff stop
Graboski's truck on suspicion of drug trafficking. Police found 25
kilograms of marijuana in three large duffel bags in the rear cargo
area and rear seat of the truck with an estimated street value of
$200,000 U.S. Later, Graboski said he wanted to co-operate with police
and agreed to wear a hidden body transmitter when he delivered the
marijuana to his contact at a Warroad, Minn. car wash.

Loran M. Stewart, 37, of Calgary, was arrested by police as the
marijuana changed hands. Stewart has already been found guilty of
second-degree conspiracy to commit a controlled substance crime and
was sentenced to two years and two months in prison Sept. 3.

Graboski, a resident of Emerson, was charged with first-degree
conspiracy to smuggle drugs. The maximum penalty is 30 years in prison
and a $1 million fine.

American law enforcement learned of Graboski as they were
investigating another marijuana smuggling incident March 11 in Roseau.

Police were watching two suspicious males -- both are landed
immigrants in Canada -- at the North Country Inn. Officers later
searched a 1994 black Jeep Cherokee with Manitoba plates being driven
by a third man and found three large duffel bags containing 27 kilos
of pot; 55 separate sealed baggies of marijuana, each one weighing
about one pound.

U.S. investigators arrested the third man and learned the three were
involved in drug smuggling.

Concerned about Manitobans being involved in smuggling, they contacted
police in Winnipeg. They spoke with an officer with the MIOCTF and
were told that police in Canada has reliable information from four
informants that Graboski was a drug trafficker.