TACOMA — Temporary deportation was ordered Monday for two Canadian men who were allegedly caught hauling 547 pounds of high-grade marijuana across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to a remote Clallam County beach June 1.
Kyle Grayson Gadsby, 25, and Colin Charles Crowe, 26, both of Maple Ridge, B.C., were released to immigration hold by a Tacoma U.S. District Court judge and will be deported in one to three weeks, said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A preliminary hearing in federal district court is scheduled for June 15.
“Each of the defendants’ families put up properties that will be forfeited to the government if they do not appear for future dates,” Langlie said Monday.
But the men may not need a preliminary hearing if a grand jury returns an indictment on the charge of conspiracy to import an estimated $1 million to $2 million of marijuana known as “B.C. bud” for its potency into the United States.
The activities of grand juries are confidential, Langlie said.
“Nine times out of 10, no preliminary hearing occurs because an indictment has been returned,” Langlie said.
As conditions of their release, they cannot travel outside British Columbia and cannot have contact with each other, she said.
They will remain incarcerated at the federal detention center in SeaTac until they are deported.
The men were apprehended after a vessel with Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Air and Marine saw them coming ashore off state Highway 112 about halfway between Port Angeles and Neah Bay with large bales of marijuana, authorities said.
Using their gray-painted inflatable raft, Gadsby and Crowe tried outracing the CBP vessel but were overtaken in about three minutes, authorities said.
The Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team assisted CBP in making the arrest.
Authorities retrieved eight bales of high-grade “B.C. bud” from the water near where Gadsby and Crowe were allegedly hauling it ashore, authorities said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
