ECUADOR HORROR FOR CITY FAMILY

Mom Fears Jailed Son Hired As Drug Mule By Local Recruiters

THE parents of a 23-year-old Winnipeg man being held in a nightmarish
Ecuadorian prison say what happened to Joseph Stone-Lamontagne could happen
to anyone.

The Sturgeon Creek graduate, who'd fallen on hard times, told his family
he'd landed a job in the oil fields of Texas.

The next time they got word of him, he was in prison in Ecuador charged
with trafficking cocaine. His family says the young man, who had never been
in trouble before, didn't go to Texas but was recruited by traffickers to
be a drug mule.

"What we want to do is let the rest of Winnipeg know these guys are right
here in our very home town recruiting our kids," said his mother, Susan
Stone-Lamontagne.

Her son, who was laid off from his job at a window and door installation
company in Winnipeg, was no globe-trotting drug trafficker, said
Stone-Lamontagne.

"He hasn't been anywhere -- he's just an average 23-year-old kid." She said
he was able to get some casual work with the window and door company and
lived with his girlfriend. They were three months behind on the rent on
their Winnipeg apartment before he left the city, she said. But he wasn't a
bad person, said Stone-Lamontagne.

"He's never even been in a real fist fight. He's family-oriented and has a
ton of friends who are all really nice people."

She and her husband, Rick Stone-Lamontagne, were notified March 8 by the
Canadian Consul in Ottawa that Joe had been arrested Feb. 25 for trying to
leave Ecuador with half a kilogram of cocaine.

They were told it could take years for a duty counsel to be appointed to
defend the young man, and that it will cost thousands to hire a lawyer
there. They were also told that they had to pay prison officials $150 US a
month to make sure he is fed and kept safe from other inmates.

"For his food, he gets a bowl of rice at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.,"
Stone-Lamontagne said.

The family, which has had no communication with Joe, paid the Canadian
Consulate a $75 fee to send money to the consul in Ecuador to buy some
books and writing material for him. "It was stolen from him at knife-point
by other prisoners," Stone-Lamontagne said.

She said a staff member from the Canadian Consulate in Ecuador was supposed
to visit Joe in prison yesterday.

The staff member was to deliver letters from his family and friends that
had been faxed and e-mailed and to take him some chocolate bars for his low
blood sugar.

"At this point, he doesn't even know his whole family and his friends are
doing what they can to round up funds to pay for his safety,"
Stone-Lamontagne said.

Because Canada has no extradition treaty with Ecuador, there's no chance of
him being brought home to Canada, she said.

The consulate is trying to have Joe moved out of the general population to
a safer part of the prison, which is located in Guayaquil.

"They're trying to have him put in with the other foreigners."

Meanwhile, the family is trying to raise money to hire a lawyer and to keep
Stone-Lamontagne fed and safe in prison. "It's not just Joseph who got
caught," said his aunt, Barb Mailey. "It's happening in Winnipeg and all
over Canada. Everybody needs to be aware." Mailey is helping to organize an
April 19 fund-raising social for her sister's son.

"That's my nephew and I love him with all my heart and I'm determined to
get him home. That's the kind of family we are -- in the worst-case
scenario, everyone pulls together."

The social is being held at 7 p.m. at the Norquay Community Centre.