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Pot-carrying student arrested in school bus bust

by Meg Olson

When the Point Roberts school bus pulled up to the Peace Arch port of entry last Friday morning there were a dozen border enforcement officers waiting. They boarded the bus and looked through every backpack. At the back of the bus students reported one of the inspectors said “This is it,” and the smell of marijuana was pungent as they carried a duffel bag from the bus. They arrested a Point Roberts teenager for smuggling eight pounds of marijuana with her school books. “I think they knew it was there. They were all ready,” one student said.

The 16-year-old girl spent the weekend in jail following the February 20 arrest and was released into her parent’s custody Monday. She will be back in court March 3 to be formally arraigned on charges of possession with intent to deliver marijuana ­ a felony - and prosecutors don’t plan to go easy on the first-time offender.

“We do not feel the standard range sentence is appropriate for smuggling drugs across an international border,” said Whatcom County senior deputy prosecutor Tom Verge. The standard sentence for a first time offender on the charge would be zero to 30 days in county juvenile detention. However, Verge said, in cases of drug smuggling prosecutors can ask the judge for a harsher sentence, and they’ve been getting them. “The last one received a sentence of four to eight months in juvenile prison,” he said, adding the teen in that case also had no prior convictions.

Verge added young people more centrally involved in a smuggling operation than the couriers, who only move the drugs, could also have their case transferred to adult court, facing even harsher penalties

The recent arrest was the second time last month that young people from the small community of Point Roberts have landed in jail for drug trafficking. On February 9 at 5 a.m. two plainclothes police officers in Tsawwassen B.C., about a mile from the Point Roberts port of entry, stopped a late-model van with Ohio plates as it left a parking lot. Smelling a strong odor of marijuana the officers searched the vehicle and found 13 pounds of marijuana, with a street value between $25,000 and $30,000, and approximately $2,000 in cash. Two Point Roberts residents were arrested ­ Eric Lieffering, 20, and a 17-year old male. They were charged with possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, according to Delta Police media officer Sharlene Brooks.

Verge said there is a concern about young people being drafted as “mules” by drug smugglers, seduced by the lure of what appears to be easy money. “The juvenile involved often thinks nothing’s going to happen and that’s not the case,” he said. “We intend to take a hard line on any juvenile involved in smuggling, and we hope schools, juveniles, parents and the smugglers understand that,” he said.

High school principal Dan Newell said school officials only very recently became aware that a problem existed with marijuana on the school bus. Some parents contacted by the All Point Bulletin who asked that their names be witheld said they found that hard to believe. They had contacted school officials as long as two years ago to ask that something be done about the problem. A former Blaine high school student from Point Roberts who also requested anonymity said thye had known about the school bus being used to smuggle pot for a decade. “It sort of goes in waves,” the former student said.

According to Blaine police officer Jon Landis, who was assigned to the school district from 1997 until budget cuts required the Blaine police department to close the school satellite office, drug smuggling by local teens tends to go in cycles. “Every three or four years something like this happens, then the kids are scared and they don’t do it for a while,” he said. “Then those kids graduate, the kids forget. It is a border town problem and a recurring one.”

Landis said the only way to keep kids out of the drug trade is to teach them that the cost isn’t worth the payoff. “They get $50 to $100 a pound and to a kid that’s gigantic. The temptation is huge,” he said. He suggested an annual assembly for high school and middle school students where local police officers, border patrol agents, border protection inspectors and prosecutors lay out the harsh penalties and high likelihood of apprehension that face young drug couriers. “Education is what makes the difference,” Landis said. “That contact with the kids, the relationship, is so important to have and unfortunately we’ve sort of lost that now not being there.” Landis said both schools and law enforcement needed more resources to improve outreach programs and counseling programs

A town hall meeting will be held March 4 at the community center, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo and school officials will attend to talk about the problem and how parents, educators, kids and law enforcement can work together to combat it.

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