[420 Girl]

VANCOUVER — Two B.C. entrepreneurs are facing drug-smuggling charges after U.S. authorities found two people hiding in the woods of a Washington park with marijuana-stuffed backpacks stashed nearby.

Christopher Andrew Neary is a former director of marketing for Telus and helped create the successful animal adverts it uses. He also owns Frank Communications, a Vancouver advertising agency, dates a celebrity fitness instructor and, according to letters of support filed in U.S. District Court, volunteers teaching art to Grade 6 students.

Daryl Paul Fontana, 37, is a married father of three, a successful triathlete and owner of a popular fitness business, Playground Fitness, in his home town of Duncan, B.C. His wife, Candace, his partner in the gym, is president of the Cowichan-Duncan Chamber of Commerce.

Both have been indicted on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to import marijuana and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

They have pleaded not guilty, and have been released before facing trial by jury starting July 6. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years.

The pair were arrested alongside another man found in the woods nearby, and the driver of an SUV which arrived in the area during the police search. A fifth man was later arrested at a Washington hotel.

The four backpacks discovered by police contained 111 heat-sealed plastic bags of marijuana totalling nearly 61 kilograms.

Friends and family, who have provided letters of support to U.S. authorities, describe the drug charges as totally out of character for both Neary and Fontana, who reportedly didn't know each other before their arrest.

"The current situation is extremely surprising to me as Chris has never been in any trouble before," said Neary's girlfriend Nadeen Boman — who hosts two popular TV shows on the Slice channel — in a letter of support.

In court documents filed in Seattle, Neary said he had "really f—ed this one up." He also said he was "pretty broke right now."

Neary added that he didn't know why he had got involved with the scheme, and that he knew there was marijuana in the backpack.

Calls to Boman were not returned by deadline.

Meanwhile, Fontana also alluded in court documents that financial gain was a motive.

"Desperate people sometimes do desperate things and I decided to partake of my own free will in this job," he told investigators in a statement. "I know I made a mistake and I should pay for that mistake.

"I sincerely apologize for knowingly breaking the laws on both sides of the border and I have deep regret at the pain I will have caused family and friends."

According to documents filed in U.S. District Court, customs agents found both men huddled together in the woods around 2 p.m. on April 26, after noticing snowshoe tracks crossing the border on a known drug- and people-smuggling route near Glacier, Wash.

Neary and Fontana initially told agents they were hikers lost in the remote, still-snowy area.

But as agents were speaking to them, a silver Infinity SUV drove toward them along a nearby forest service road. When agents questioned the driver he said he was a writer looking for a secluded place to put pen to paper.

But inside the SUV officers found an envelope with $4,000 U.S. cash marked "grandma," along with enough fast food for several people.

As the agents were calling for back-up, they heard rustling in the surrounding woods and found another man. A fifth man was later arrested at a hotel in Bellingham, Wash.



News Hawk: Warbux 420 MAGAZINE
Source: The Vancouver Sun
Author: Clare Ogilvie
Contact: Vancouver Sun | Latest Breaking News | Business | Sports | Canada Daily News
Copyright: 2010 Canwest News Service
Website: Canadian businessmen charged with drug smuggling


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