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SEATTLE — The U.S. Justice Department says a 37-year-old citizen of both Canada and France has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
The department says in a news release that border agents began investigating Martin Briand in 2009 and discovered he had made 30 trips by private plane from Point Roberts, Wash., on the Canadian border to points south.
It says during one of those trips, a Washington state trooper stopped him after he and another man were observed struggling with heavy bags that they loaded onto a pick-up truck.
A drug detection dog alerted police to the presence of narcotics and the officer seized the bags for a later search, which led to the seizure of more than 59 kilograms of cocaine.
The department says Briand was allowed to leave and he returned to Canada.
Briand was arrested in December 2015 as he arrived at the Vancouver airport from France and was extradited to the U.S. to face the charge.
