Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 22, 1995 TAG: 9506220076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DANVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Claude Guay, 54, and his son Daniel Guay, 33, were convicted of one count each of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. They will be sentenced after reports on their backgrounds are compiled.
The jury in U.S. District Court in Danville deliberated about 40 minutes before convicting the Guays.
The Guays had claimed to be ignorant of the true nature of their cargo. Claude Guay testified they knew there was contraband in their load, but he thought it was untaxed cigarettes.
The drugs were found when their tractor-trailer overturned while swerving to avoid an oncoming pickup. The melons were smashed across the road along with eight duffel bags hidden in the produce.
The two men claimed to be just as surprised as the tow-truck driver who picked up a duffel bag on U.S. 29 in Pittsylvania County and expected to find personal items inside.
``At first, I thought it was like cigarettes or cassette tapes,'' Kenneth Harris testified. ``When I saw a multitude of bags, I knew it wasn't dirty laundry.''
The duffel bags and a cardboard box contained cocaine with an estimated street value of $18 million, making it one of Virginia's largest drug seizures.
Claude Guay testified through an interpreter during the two-day trial that he had just collected his load of melons in southern Texas when a Mexican approached him at a truck stop.
The man offered him $20,000 to haul ``Mexican smokes'' to a farmers market in Toronto, Guay said. According to the defense, the cigarettes would have been valuable on Canada's black market.
The prosecution sought to debunk the elder Guay's insistence that his son knew nothing about the drugs. An FBI fingerprint expert testified that Daniel Guay's fingerprints were found on some of the plastic-wrapped bricks of cocaine.
Guay explained that his son found the bags while checking the melons during the trip north, and he told him that they contained cigarettes.
In a tape recording of an interview with the state police played in court, the elder Guay made no mention of untaxed cigarettes, but did speak of Mexican suitcases.
FBI agent Mark Mackizer testified Monday that Claude Guay told him he thought the suitcases might contain marijuana and he was traveling off the interstate highway system to avoid police.
The Guays, who are from Quebec, speak little English, and two court-appointed interpreters narrated proceedings.
by CNB