Men get prison, deportation for smuggling cash across border near Blaine

June 27, 2011



DEBBIE TOWNSEND - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

Two Mexican citizens will spend the next year in federal prison and then be deported after smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars into the U.S. from Canada.

Fabian Arias-Ramirez, 39, and Sergio Arroyo-Rivera, 22, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones last week after pleading guilty in March to cash smuggling.

The men, who recently had been living in Fresno, Calif., were stopped Dec. 15 after they tripped a sensor near the U.S. border east of Blaine. Border Patrol agents arrived to find the men wearing camouflage and carrying a special blue-light flashlight that couldn't be seen from a distance, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle.

The men were carrying large backpacks stuffed with shrink-wrapped packages of cash. The money - $296,185 in U.S. currency and $360,760 Canadian - is believed to be the proceeds of drug smuggling, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Border Patrol agents found the men had crossed into the U.S. along a forest trail about seven miles east of Blaine.

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