DETROIT (AP) - A Canadian man who was found unconscious and tethered to 185 pounds of marijuana in the Detroit River was sentenced Wednesday to about six years in a U.S. prison.
The capture of Glen Mousseau last June capped a strange few weeks in his dealings with U.S. law enforcement. The case also revealed extraordinary steps that his smuggling operation took to move drugs and cash between the two countries, even using Seabobs, a watercraft that can propel people underwater.
"The international nature of the smuggling here is noteworthy and in many ways more alarming than the run-of-the-mill drug distribution conspiracy," U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland said.
Mousseau of Windsor, Ontario, was first stopped in May while driving a rental truck in St. Clair County, Michigan, and possessing roughly $100,000. The government said he confessed to being a smuggler who served various criminal groups.
Investigators said Mousseau quickly agreed to help agents in a methamphetamine bust. But he fled a hotel, leaving behind phones, a laptop and a diving suit, and somehow dashed back to Canada.
He turned up two weeks later in the overnight darkness of the Detroit River as border agents pursued a suspicious boat. Carefully wrapped packages weighing 265 pounds were tied to Mousseau, including marijuana totaling 185 pounds.
"He was a mule. That's all his participation was," defense attorney Victor Mansour said. "He was the one who was thrown into the water. He almost died."
But the government noted that Mousseau, 49, has a 32-year criminal record in Canada.
Mousseau urged the judge to "see some good in me." His lawyer asked for a 3 1/2-year sentence, but Cleland chose about six years.
- Posted March 04, 2021
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Long U.S. prison stay for Canadian drug mule who used river
headlines Macomb
headlines National
- More lawyers—and clients—want to learn about sustainable development practices
- Top artificial intelligence insurance tips for lawyers
- Lawyer charged with illegally transmitting Michigan data after 2020 election
- Viral video shows former Rikers Island inmate as she learns she passed bar exam on first try
- How Sullivan & Cromwell is scrutinizing potential new hires after campus protests
- No separate hearing required when police seize cars loaned to drivers accused of drug crimes, SCOTUS rules