Canadian snowshoe pot smuggler sentenced in Wash.

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Canadian snowshoe pot smuggler sentenced in Wash.
updated 10/16/2010 3:18:14 PM ET 2010-10-16T19:18:14

SEATTLE — A Vancouver, British Columbia, man will serve 30 months in a U.S. prison for leading a snowshoe smuggling ring that tried to bring marijuana to Washington state on treacherous mountain trails.

Richard Bafaro tearfully apologized in court Friday, saying he had been forced to pay $70,000 to drug suppliers after he lost a load of B.C. bud pot in the wilderness, which led him to smuggle more marijuana.

The 45-year-old said that on one of the trips to look for the missing pot, one of his friends was badly injured and had to be airlifted out of the Canadian forest.

Five men were arrested with links to Bafaro's operation and were sentenced to prison terms between eight months and one year. Bafaro was convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39700287/ns/us_news/

[Suich]

1. I want to know how he

"lost" a load in the wilderness!

:)

[pattmarty]

2. Maybe it went "up in smoke"?

:smoke:

[sofa king]

3. Someone probably dropped a backpack into a ravine.

According to:

http://www.webehigh.com/city/detail.php?CITYID=Vancouver,%20BC

$75000 @ $300US/Oz = 250 Oz = 15.6 pounds

If the fellow acquired twice that much for his $75 grand, the whole load could still theoretically be packed into a single heavy duty hiking backpack (though I think the stuff takes up a lot of volume).

On a good steep hillside, a dropped back needs only one good bounce to launch itself out and into the high branches of a tree below, and once up there, it may never be found. Just ask D. B. Cooper, and those looking for him.

[Spazito]

5. LOL, that was my thought as well n/t

[daleo]

4. Yet it could be legal in California soon. n/t