Foosball-table pot smuggler sentenced
A St. Catharines woman who was caught at the border smuggling $60,000 worth of marijuana into the U.S. inside a foosball table was given a three-year conditional discharge at the Niagara County Courthouse in Lockport, N.Y.
Miranda Ferron, 33, faced 18 months in a U.S. prison. She had no prior criminal record.
“The judge took into consideration the fact she is Canadian in giving her a conditional discharge instead of putting her on probation,” assistant district attorney Laura Bittner said. “My guess would be she wouldn’t have been given jail time anyway — based on her record.
“The sentence wasn’t a surprise. We can’t transfer monitoring someone on probation from America to Canada.”
Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon also ordered Ferron to perform 500 hours of community service at the sentencing Sept. 15.
Ferron was arrested Jan. 13 at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge after drug-sniffing dogs found in the back of her vehicle 25 kilograms of pot in about 50 vacuumsealed bags that were hidden in a panel beneath the table game playing surface that resembles a soccer field.
She pleaded guilty June 29 to a felony, third-degree criminal possession of marijuana. Ferron spent less than one week in custody before she made bail.
Bittner said it was never determined where Ferron got the marijuana.
“We do get a fair amount of people bringing stuff over the border. It’s usually people bringing smaller amounts like a pound or two, but it’s not unheard of. The fact that there was a foosball table involved probably drew a lot of attention to it.”