Third border-tunnel suspect pleads guilty

SEATTLE – The last of three men charged with digging a sophisticated drug-smuggling tunnel under the U.S.-Canadian border pleaded guilty Friday, two days after a Senate bill was introduced to make cross-border tunneling punishable by 20 years in prison.

Timothy Woo faces at least five years in prison and a maximum fine of $2 million when he is sentenced for conspiracy to smuggle marijuana, as do Francis Devandra Raj and Jonathan Valenzuela, who previously entered guilty pleas.

All three are from Surrey, British Columbia. They were arrested last July, shortly after they finished the 360-foot tunnel just north of Lynden – the first tunnel discovered along the U.S.-Canadian border. It ran from the living room of a home on the U.S. side to a boarded-up Quonset hut on the Canadian side.

Border guards noticed construction materials being brought into the hut, and loads of dirt coming out, and investigators used the Patriot Act’s provision for “sneak-and-peek” search warrants to examine the tunnel and set up cameras to monitor it.

The investigators allowed three marijuana-running trips to take place in the tunnel in hopes of learning more about the suspects and whether they were involved in a wider drug ring. In each case the defendants were tailed as they left the tunnel.

On Wednesday, U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash; Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced a bill that would make financing or building a cross-border tunnel punishable by 20 years in prison. Though it is illegal now to avoid examination at the border, tunneling is not specifically a crime.

“This is an issue of national security,” Cantwell said. “We need to keep drugs out of our communities and terrorists out of our country.”

Since Sept. 11, 2001, 35 border tunnels have been discovered in the United States – all but one on the Mexican border, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“There’s always a concern that this is a harbinger of future events,” U.S. Attorney John McKay said Friday. “We have to stay vigilant.”

If tunnel-building itself carries a 20-year sentence, Canadian authorities could argue that American prosecutors don’t so much need to verify what suspects are using the tunnel for, McKay suggested.

Cantwell spokeswoman Charla Neuman said the legislation is designed to give investigators more options.

The investigators have not determined who financed the tunnel’s construction, estimated to have cost more than $20,000.