Man gets probation for smuggling pot across US-Canada border

BURLINGTON — A Vermont man, who authorities say participated in a scheme that illegally moved hundreds of pounds of cannabis from Canada into the U.S., has been sentenced to probation.

Federal prosecutors say Jack Cohen, 36, of Hyde Park, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Burlington to time served of one day and three years of probation.

Authorities say Cohen was arrested in the border community of Canaan on March 24 with 272 pounds of cannabis in his truck. Prosecutors say the pot was moved across across the border on the frozen Lake Wallace using snowmobiles.

Federal court documents say that Jack Cohen, of Stowe, was arrested Wednesday night after he was apprehended by Border Patrol agents in the town of Canaan with four duffel bags in the back of his pickup truck.

Border Patrol agents had been monitoring for more than a month an area on the Vermont side of Wallace Lake, which straddles the border with Quebec, after agents discovered snowmobile tracks across the frozen lake.

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