Indian held on drug charges in US
An Indian and two immigrants built an elaborate $1-mn tunnel to smuggle marijuana, reports S Rajagopalan.
This is a story of Indian enterprise of the wrong kind. An Indian, teaming up with two other immigrants, built an elaborate $1-million tunnel to smuggle marijuana from Canada to the US. The trio’s game was up by last week, when they were caught with the first consignment of the contraband.
The men arrested and charged with conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana are Francis Devandra Raj, 30, Timothy Woo, 34, and Jonathan Valenzuela, 27, all residents of British Columbia, Canada.
Some describe it as the very first subterranean passage between Canada and the US. The 360-foot-long tunnel of reinforced concrete and lumber passes from under a shed on Raj’s property to the living room of an unoccupied house on the American side, owned by an Indian couple.
The sophisticated tunnel, complete with lights and ventilation, had been in the making for about eight months. For the past six months, it had been under the close observation of US and Canadian law enforcement officials.
The house on the American side at Lynden, Washington state, is owned by Raman and Kusum Patel, according to the Whatcom County assessor’s website.
The Patels, living in another county, have not been arrested.
Raj, Woo and Valenzuela have been charged in a US court in Seattle. Officials said secret cameras observed the movements of the trio, who made “multiple trips” through the tunnel that was completed early this month. Their “garbage bags” were stuffed with marijuana, delivered to a woman. In all, 93 pounds of marijuana was reportedly seized from the woman’s car.