|
Man jailed for trying to smuggle girlfriend from Canada
Published on: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 22:45:24 GMT
An Oklahoma man accused of trying to help his French girlfriend enter the United States illegally from Canada pleaded guilty Thursday to a violation of immigration law and was sentenced to 13 days in prison. The U.S. attorney's office said Jay Benjamin Bost, 29, of Tulsa, Okla., was also fined $5,000 and made subject to six months of supervised release. Authorities alleged on July 30, while attempting to enter the United States at Coburn Gore, Me. Bost lied to customs and border patrol officers by telling them he did not have a passenger in his vehicle.
Authorities said in fact Bost's 18-year-old girlfriend, French citizen Alizee Guiet, was hiding in a sleeping bag under a homemade bed in the back of Bost's Ford Bronco.
Guiet had been denied entry into the United States one day earlier for visa-waiver program violations, authorities said.
Bost allegedly told officers in Coburn Gore that Guiet was on a bus to Quebec City.
A lawyer who represented Guiet said the couple had been camping in Canada and were heading to Oklahoma when they were arrested.
Guiet was sentenced in August to 13 days, the amount of time she already served in jail, to be followed by one year of supervised release.
She has since been deported, authorities said.
Bost, who authorities said told officers he and Guiet had devised the immigration scheme together, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting attempted illegal re-entry into the United States of an alien who had been denied entry.
|