KINGSTON SENIOR ADMITS ROLE AS COKE SMUGGLER

COVINGTON, LA. -- He Was A Drug-Runner After All.

Retired teacher and humanitarian Ed Shaw, widely defended in his
hometown of Kingston when he and three other men were arrested two
years ago in Louisiana with more than $1 million US of cocaine, has
admitted that he was indeed a drug mule.

Despite his guilty plea and seven-year sentence, friends and
acquaintances said that Shaw, 76, must have been in the wrong place at
the wrong time. They raised $20,000 for legal bills and established a
website called Free Ed Shaw.

But for several hours last week, Shaw testified at a co-defendant's
trial that he carried money and stuffed cocaine down his socks during
jaunts across the U.S. border from Mexico in 2001 for drug dealers in
Belize.

"I wanted to get a feel for it," Shaw said.

His co-defendant, Ronald Lines, an architect from Alberta, was
convicted on Saturday of conspiring to possess cocaine. He faces 15 to
30 years when he is sentenced Oct. 31.

'MORE POSITIVES'

As a result of his testimony, State District Judge Rusty Knight is
scheduled to consider reducing Shaw's sentence on Sept. 23.

Jim Metcalfe, who organized fundraising for Shaw, shrugged off the
development, saying Shaw's humanitarian work outweighed the crime.

"Ed Shaw has more positives in his life than negatives. He was always
helping people," Metcalfe said.

District attorney Walter Reed said the Canadian government had
followed the case and that a member of the Canadian Consulate
General's office attended Lines' trial and "left with the impression
that justice was served."

Shaw testified in court that he carried drugs across the border for
some of his associates because he was intellectually curious about the
workings of the drug trade, particularly the ill effects it has on
poor Central and South American countries.

Shaw was arrested Oct. 14, 2001, after he and Lines crossed the border
and were travelling from Texas to Florida with two Belize nationals,
Marlon Seawell, 31, and Clide Peyrefitte, 30, in two vehicles.

After stopping near Covington for the night, Shaw checked into a motel
with Lines while the other two men tried to fix their Ford Explorer,
which was having transmission problems.

16 KG OF COKE

They called a tow truck and offered $1,000 cash to have the vehicle
towed to Tampa, Fla. The tow truck driver became suspicious and
reported the request to authorities.

During a search of the vehicle, police found a suitcase containing 18
individually wrapped bricks of cocaine weighing 16 kg, two assault
rifles, two semi-automatic pistols and more than 500 rounds of
ammunition.