WASHINGTON: A 37-year-old Canadian who was caught with 59 kilos of cocaine has been sentenced to 10 years in jail in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that Martin Briand, who is also a French citizen, was sentenced for conspiracy to distribute cocaine after the cocaine was seized in December 2009.
Briand was on the run for six years before being arrested in December 2015 upon arriving at Vancouver International Airport from France. He had been identified by Canadian and U.S. border agents as being extensively involved in smuggling cocaine into Canada.
“In just six months in 2009, this defendant made 29 flights in chartered aircraft between Point Roberts, Washington and points south without ever legally entering the U.S.,” said U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes.
“In his final trip, a Washington State Trooper caught him with nearly 60 kilos of cocaine. Anyone responsible for transporting these kinds of quantities of illegal drugs also is responsible for feeding countless drug addictions and the misery that comes with them, and thus deserves the lengthy sentence imposed in this case.”
According to records filed in the case, Briand’s activity came to the attention of border agents in October 2009, when two men tried to cross the border in a taxi. The men and their bags were screened and the bags showed a positive reading for cocaine residue.
The men reported that they had entered the U.S. illegally by walking across the border into the U.S. at Point Roberts. The men flew to Seattle on a private charter and then to California where they met up with Briand. The men then flew with Briand back to Washington State. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement learned that Briand had made 30 trips from Point Roberts to points south between April 9, 2009, and Nov. 2, 2009.
On Dec. 12, 2009, Briand and a co-defendant flew into the Skagit County Airport and were observed struggling with heavy bags they loaded into a pickup truck.
The truck was stopped by law enforcement and a drug detection dog alerted to the presence of narcotics. The Washington State trooper seized the bags for later search and Briand and his associate were allowed to leave. The men abandoned the truck and Briand fled to Canada.
Briand refused to return to the U.S., but after his arrest at YVR, he was detained in Canada before agreeing to be extradited to the U.S. in March 2016.
The case was investigated by many agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Canada Border Services Agency, and the U.S. Border Patrol.
