MARIJUANA SMUGGLING CASE FIRST LOCAL USE OF PATRIOT ACT PROVISION

The U.S. attorney in Seattle has used a Patriot Act provision to charge 15
people with smuggling marijuana money out of this country as part of a
multimillion-dollar drug operation based in Canada.

It is the first time the provision has been used in a major case in this
district, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg. The indictments say
an undercover agent spent nearly a year working with the alleged smugglers,
accused of helping to deliver $3.4 million illegally into Canada in 2003.
The money came from the sale of marijuana in the states, Greenberg said.

"From our perspective, the significance is the amount of money and the
length of time this went on," Greenberg said. The suspects live in
Washington and Canada and made their first appearance in U.S. District
Court yesterday.

According to the indictments, an undercover agent with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement infiltrated the organization, often acting as a
middle-man and taking the money from the Washington residents into British
Columbia.

The 15 each were charged under the Patriot Act with one count of bulk-cash
smuggling. Nine others were charged earlier with international money
laundering and marijuana trafficking under a separate law.

It has long been illegal to take more than $10,000 out of the country
without reporting it. But the Patriot Act strengthened that law and "took
it out of just being a reporting violation to be a smuggling, trafficking
type of offense," Greenberg said. The crime carries a maximum penalty of
five years in prison and the forfeiture of the illegally transported money.

Although the Patriot Act was passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as
a way to thwart terrorism, there is no indication these defendants are
connected to terrorism, Greenberg said.

"They're trying to get money from here to support crime somewhere else, so
it's a way to crack down on that," he said.