Man sentenced for aiding marijuana traffickers

A 78-year-old man who allowed drug traffickers to use his property just south of the Canadian border in Ferry County will spend 2  1/2 years in federal prison, a judge ruled Thursday.

Alvin Oliver Shields had 700 pounds of marijuana on his property when federal agents searched it in 2009. His lawyer said he retired from drug trafficking two years before a grand jury indicted him in September.

Shields and his wife live in Lebanon, Ore. His criminal history consists only of a conviction for petty larceny in 1958.

Shields’ lawyer, Jeffry Finer, described him in court documents as a good-humored man with poor hearing and early signs of dementia. He graduated from high school in the 1950s but can’t remember the year. He also couldn’t initially remember the name of his first wife.

“Mr. Shields was ultimately able to provide it to Probation when he noticed it was tattooed on his left arm,” Finer wrote.

Prosecutors say Shields lived in Canada for 30 years. Federal agents began investigating Shields in 2003 after a Border Patrol agent found four duffel bags holding 140 pounds of marijuana apparently dropped by four people who ran from Fourth of July Creek Road, west of Danville, Wash., into Canada.

The agent then saw Shields “driving slowly in a van with the rear cargo doors propped open,” according to a plea agreement.

Then in 2008, a multi-agency investigation determined Shields was letting marijuana traffickers in Canada transport pot to his property; it was then taken to Spokane and stored for distribution.

Shields pleaded guilty in May to money laundering, structuring financial transactions to avoid reporting requirements, conspiracy to distribute 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana and three counts of failure to file income tax returns.

U.S. District Judge Rosanna Peterson sentenced him in Spokane on Thursday to 30 months in prison followed by five years of probation.

The court is recommending that he be housed at the federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., to allow his wife, whom Finer described as “aged and unwell,” to visit.