BORDER PATROL AGENT PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY CHARGES

BURLINGTON, Vt. --A U.S. Border Patrol agent has pleaded not guilty
to charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false
statements stemming from the release of a drug smuggling suspect in
exchange for information about future smuggling.

Steven Garceau, 33, entered his plea Tuesday.

A second agent, Ross Schofield, 33, is scheduled to plead Thursday.

The charges stem from a Feb. 5 incident in which Garceau and
Schofield went to the Newport City Motel and apprehended a man who
just received a shipment of 60 pounds of marijuana, the indictment
says. The agents then took the man and the drugs back to the Border
Patrol's Newport station.

Garceau and Schofield filed paperwork saying they'd found marijuana
abandoned in Holland. They repeated the story to supervisors and
other law-enforcement agents, the indicment says.

The agents took Garceau's drug-sniffing dog into the woods to make it
appear the dog had led them to the marijuana, the indictment said.

The indictment says Garceau and Schofield could have been protecting
an informant.

"After securing the individual's agreement to continue cooperating
with them by notifying them of additional deliveries of marijuana or
narcotics into the United States from Canada, the defendants released
the individual without notifying either their immediate supervisor"
or other law enforcement agents, the indictment said.

Both agents have been placed on leave, according to the Border Patrol.

Garceau was released Tuesday.

If convicted, the agents face up to 20 years in prison.