A man arrested a year ago in connection with smuggling drugs across the Canada-U.S. border and firing gunshots at border agents faces new charges.
Nathan John Hall, 36, has been charged in Langley with breaching his probation on Jan. 28, and in Mission with driving while suspended, operating a motor vehicle while disqualified and resisting a police officer on March 7.
He was released from custody on $2,500 bail, according to the provincial court database.
Hall was arrested in Abbotsford last April after a day-long manhunt that involved authorities on both sides of the border.
The incident began when U.S. border agents found two men walking through a forested area along the border from Abbotsford into Sumas, Wash.
Both fled, and Hall allegedly fired gunshots at the agents. Jeffrey Robert Laviolette, 38, of Surrey was apprehended at the scene.
Two backpacks that were allegedly dropped by Hall and Laviolette as they were running contained 58.5 pounds of the drug ecstasy.
Hall was arrested by Abbotsford Police at an apartment in the city early the following morning.
At the time, he had been wanted by police in Kelowna for three counts of breaching his conditions and one count of theft under $5,000.
Hall was convicted last summer in Kelowna of the three breach offences, receiving a six-month jail term. The theft charge was reduced to a guilty plea for mischief, resulting in a 30-day sentence.
He still faces charges in the U.S. for conspiracy to distribute ecstasy, conspiracy to import ecstasy, aiding and abetting the importation of ecstasy, possession of a firearm, and aiding and abetting the possession of ecstasy with intent to distribute.
Laviolette was jailed in the U.S. after he was arrested by the border agents. He pleaded guilty in December and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Two U.S. citizens – Kali Henifin and Ryan Lambert, who were allegedly supposed to pick up the drugs from Hall and Laviolette and transport the ecstasy to San Francisco – have also pleaded guilty.
Lambert is scheduled for sentencing on April 25 and Henifin on Aug. 1.
