COBURN GORE — A navigation device suggested a shortcut that landed a Canadian man and woman in jail after they pulled up to a remote U.S. border crossing with $70,000 worth of drugs in the man’s car, police said.
The pair was following GPS directions that showed going through Maine was the quickest route from Quebec, where they were, to Newfoundland, where they were headed late Monday night, police said.
Before they reached the U.S., they stopped at a Canadian border crossing station to ask agents there about the shortcut, said Matthew Cashman, a Maine Drug Enforcement Agency supervisor.
“They questioned whether they should go over the (U.S.) border or not, but the Canadian customs told them they were going to shave over two hours off the trip,” Cashman said, citing police reports.
They decided to continue and soon arrived at the U.S. station at Coburn Gore in northern Franklin County, where border patrol agents searched the man’s 2000 BMW 528i and found the drugs in a duffel bag in the car’s trunk, he said.
Jason White, 40, and Amber Baird, 21, both from Stephenville, Newfoundland, were arrested on multiple drug charges after the search. Drug agents reported that the bag contained a pound and a half of cocaine and 1,875 Ecstasy pills, with a combined street value of $70,000.
Baird pleaded guilty this week to charges of trafficking in cocaine and Ecstasy, possession of hashish and illegal importation. She was sentenced Wednesday in a Farmington court to serve 30 days in jail and fined $5,000, according to Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland.
White pleaded guilty to charges of possessing cocaine and hashish. He was fined $750 and forfeited his BMW, with a value of about $6,000, McCausland wrote in a press release.
Cashman said Thursday that plenty of people get lost and unknowingly end up at the Coburn Gore border crossing on Route 27, where their vehicles can legally be searched by border patrol agents.
“It’s not uncommon, especially up in the wilderness portion of Maine, for them to just all of a sudden end up at the border station,” he said.
Last year, a 54-year-old Canadian man followed his GPS directions to the same border crossing. He had a pound of marijuana in a cooler in his pickup truck and got arrested, telling police he never intended to enter the United States, police said.
Darrell Fudge of Newfoundland pleaded guilty to the drug charges, paid a fine and forfeited his 2003 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck before returning home.
David Robinson — 861-9287
drobinson@centralmaine.com
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