NOT-GUILTY PLEA TO SMUGGLING ULTRA-POTENT POT

GRAND FORKS -- A Selkirk man pleaded not guilty yesterday in U.S. District
Court to charges in what authorities say was a plot to smuggle
extra-potent, expensive Canadian marijuana across the border at Pembina, N.D.

William James Johnston, 38, who has been in a U.S. jail since the Jan. 21
arrest, is accused of being the Canadian connection in a plan that
allegedly involved two American men, Linh Duc Hoang, 28, of New Brighton,
Minn., and Paramy Siharath, 22, of Eden Prairie, Minn.

Authorities accused the three of trying to import potent, high-priced
marijuana cultivated with high-tech equipment in hydroponic greenhouses.
The drug is 10 times as strong as naturally grown marijuana and can fetch
prices rivalling cocaine per ounce, up to $6,000 US a pound, on the street.

The 30 pounds allegedly found in Johnston's pickup truck Jan. 21 was valued
at $180,000 US by authorities.

Johnston was arrested on the spot and has been in the Grand Forks County
Corrections Center ever since, awaiting a hearing in court. The U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service has an administrative "hold," on
Johnston, according to Nick Chase, assistant U.S. attorney in Fargo, so he
likely will remain in jail until the trial.

He was indicted on charges including conspiracy to import an illegal drug.
He faces, on each of three charges, a maximum sentence of five years in
prison and a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release and
restitution. All three men hired Minneapolis attorneys who appeared with
them yesterday in court.

The men are scheduled to go to trial June 9 in federal court in Grand Forks
before U.S District Judge Ralph Erickson.