IS INNOCENCE ENOUGH?

Manitoba Pastor's Story A Chilling Cautionary Tale

Stephen Frey was put behind bars for the sake of cough medicine and
cold tablets. He is - in most people's minds - far from a drug runner.
In fact, he's about as well-intentioned as they come. But that didn't
stop the Canadian medical missionary from spending almost four months
in a Mexican prison, only getting out little more than a week ago.

Sun Media has been following Frey's case, both as he sat inside a
federal jail in Mexico, and his jubilant and sudden release earlier
this month.

The story of how he found himself behind bars, facing 15 years in jail
- - prosecutors are still going ahead with their case - is enough to
make anyone who crosses a border rethink their good intentions and
what they're keeping in their overnight bag.

Frey, a 48-year-old divorced father of three from southern Manitoba,
has worked as a Mexican missionary for five years.

"This is a guy who's been helping the poorest people of Mexico get
basic medicines - stuff which you and I take for granted," says Duane
Jones, executive director of the U.S.-based Cornerstone International
Missions. "This guy can't be confused with a criminal. Just the opposite."

Working under Cornerstone - an established Houston Christian ministry
- - Frey has been bringing needed medicine to the impoverished in the
Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. The donated supplies are antibiotics
and the kind of things most people can pull off a shelf at their local
Wal-Mart.

On Aug. 19, while driving about 30 km inside the Mexican-U.S. border,
Frey and the 16-year-old daughter of a Mexican pastor were stopped by
customs officials. The Mexican authorities confiscated 12 bottles of
cough syrup and another dozen bottles of Sudafed cold pills. Suddenly,
Frey was a drug trafficker. They put him in a stifling hot local jail
cell with nine other men and no food and water.

A chemical analysis of the cold pills found they contained common
pseudoephedrine - a decongestant. "They could have saved the trouble
by simply looking at the side of the bottle," the missionary notes.

Apparently relying on an old Mexican health department edict rather
than the country's list of controlled substances, prosecutors charged
the Canadian with transporting banned substances.

His most pressing concern was the young girl arrested with him. After
three days, she was released.

"There's no question of corruption and graft," he says of the Mexican
system. "But I think it started as confusion, and then they had to
save face."

It may also have to do with an uneasy relationship Mexican officials
have long had with missionaries bringing medicine into their country.
Especially missionaries who avoid paying customs taxes on the items
they bring in - a minor offence, which, in Frey's case, meant a fine.

Frey's arrest saw a freeze on others bringing in similar shipments for
the poor.

An American government official said it was the quantity of medicine -
more than personal use - as well as avoiding customs, which has
angered officials in that country.

Released more than a week ago while prosecutors continue to pursue a
case - likely looking at a substantial fine - Frey is now driving back
to Canada with his family. He hopes to soon return to his work in
Mexico after finding a compromise with Mexican officials.

"Ninety-nine per cent of Mexicans are wonderful people. They're people
who still need help.

"I'm not ready to give that up."