March 3, 2009 in City

Jail suicide victim was B.C. man suspected of transporting pot

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A Canadian man who hanged himself in a Spokane County Jail cell Friday was there on suspicion of delivering 350 pounds of marijuana to undercover DEA agents in northern Washington, federal authorities say.

Samuel Jackson Lindsay-Brown, 24, of Revelstoke, B.C., had been charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, said Tom Rice, criminal chief assistant U.S. attorney.

Authorities say Lindsay-Brown delivered the drugs via helicopter to a pre-arranged, remote spot in the Colville National Forest. The DEA agents did not think the shipment would be delivered because of bad weather, but “the helicopter came through the rain, fog and darkness,” Rice said.

Lindsay-Brown was arrested Feb. 23 as he unloaded the “BC bud,” Rice said. He was alone.

BC bud – a potent variety of marijuana grown in British Columbia – is a multibillion-dollar industry in Canada, Rice said. The seizure of 350 pounds of the cannabis is about average for a DEA bust, he said.

The $1 million helicopter, which a Malakwa, B.C., man reported stolen to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was seized by the DEA, authorities said.

Lindsay-Brown was not known to law enforcement, according to the RCMP in Revelstoke.

The 24-year-old’s suicide prompted a five-hour lockdown in the Spokane County Jail on Friday. The Spokane police major crimes unit was investigating his death.

According to the autopsy, Lindsay-Brown died from strangulation, said Spokane police Sgt. Joe Peterson.

Lindsay-Brown, who was alone in the cell, “jammed” a bedsheet into a wall light fixture and hanged himself with the sheet, the detective said.

The last suicide at the jail occurred in February 2004, when an inmate used shoelaces to hang himself, said Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Jay Hughes. In March 2006, another inmate attempted suicide by jumping off a second-story catwalk onto a mezzanine floor, he said.

Lindsay-Brown was not on a suicide watch, jail officials said.

“We removed their shoelaces. We removed their cable television,” said Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Dave Reagan. “But we can’t very well remove their linens.”

Contact Jody Lawrence-Turner at (509) 459-5593 or jodyl@spokesman.com

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Five comments on this story so far. Add yours!

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  Darral on March 03 at 11:30 a.m.

  I cannot support my government for doing something like this to a human being. He was so scared of the LONG sentences this government hands out for smuggling a FLOWER that he KILLED himself!
  

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  Darral Good on March 03 at 11:47 a.m.

  BC bud – a potent variety of marijuana grown in British Columbia – is a multibillion-dollar industry in Canada, Rice said. The seizure of 350 pounds of the cannabis is about average for a DEA bust, he said.

  Couldn't our state use this money?
  Why must we send our money up North?
  Let's keep the money
  out of the hands of the gangsters
  (anybody remember Al Capone?) and
  put it where it belongs — health care and child welfare, not to mention paying off the coming debt.

  Please write to Cristine Gregoire and tell her we need a HEMP bailout!!

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• 

  Darral Good on March 03 at 12:12 p.m.

  The government has not been able to prove one toxicity-related death from cannabis.

  Compare that to nicotine products that kill 400,000
  American's each year.

  Government lies about this plant include saying it has no medical value.

  A dangerous drug is one that causes death and/or mayhem. Marijuana causes neither.
  

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