BILLINGS (AP)
Three Canadian men face federal drug charges after a traffic stop near Glendive netted 145 pounds of the illegal drug Ecstasy worth about $5 million on the street. Timothy M. Morneau, 31, Christian D. Laurin, 19, and Alan James Mulder, 19, all of Winnipeg, are accused of smuggling the drugs across the U.S.-Canada border into North Dakota on a snowmobile. On Feb. 9, a Montana Highway Patrol trooper stopped a vehicle near Glendive for having a headlight out. A search of the vehicle turned up at least 200,000 Ecstasy tablets, said Travis Pitts, a Laurel police officer and special agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The tablets sell for about $25 each on the street. A criminal complaint charges the men with conspiracy to possess Ecstasy for distribution and possession with intent to distribute. If convicted, they face a minimum mandatory 10 years to life in prison and a $4 million fine. The case will be submitted to a grand jury for indictment. Jim Tilley, the DEA's resident agent in charge in Billings, said Friday it was one of the largest Ecstasy seizures in the state. A bust near Sweetgrass netted 100,000 tablets. Ecstasy, a stimulant and hallucinogen, is typically packaged in pound quantities, Tilley said. The drug is manufactured for about $3 a pill by labs in Canada and Amsterdam.
