Paper towel smuggler given prison sentence

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A Canadian truck driver has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for smuggling 240 pounds of marijuana across the border in a load of paper towels.

Harjinder Dhugga, from Brampton, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Buffalo.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says border officers discovered the 10 boxes of marijuana in November 2009 while inspecting Dhugga's cargo at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge in western New York. Officers removed the marijuana and followed the truck into New York.

Dhugga was arrested as he drove toward Long Island to drop it off. He pleaded guilty the following month.

U.S. Attorney William Hochul says commercial truck drivers are routinely caught trying to sneak drugs into the United States.

• 

  A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer looks toward a car coming toward him at the border crossing between the U.S. and Canada, in Blaine, Wash. on Saturday, May 30, 2009. (Elaine Thompson/AP)