(Seattle) US authorities say they stopped a small boat carrying a large shipment of methamphetamine after seeing it navigate the waters near Canada’s border with Washington state.
Posted at 9:52 p.m.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said officers stopped a 5.5-meter Bayliner motorboat in the San Juan Islands on Wednesday as it headed toward Canada.
They reported finding 650kg of methamphetamine on board, packed in 28 handbags secured with luggage padlocks.
PHOTO OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The occupant of the boat, identified as Ted Karl Faupel, a resident of Alberta, was arrested for distributing drugs. He made a first appearance in federal district court in Seattle on Thursday; his attorney, federal public defender Vanessa Pai-Thompson, declined to comment.
According to a federal criminal complaint filed in court, Faupel told investigators he was hiking near a marina in Sidney, Vancouver Island, when someone approached him and told him offered $1000 to move a boat round trip from Sidney to Anacortes, WA.
He said he left Vancouver Island on Tuesday. He said four men met him at a Washington state marina and they took the boat on a trailer. They then dropped the man off at an inn. The next day they brought him back to the dock and he left in the newly loaded boat to return to Canada.
He said he didn’t know what was in the purses, according to the complaint.