Postmedia News March 12, 2011

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Ontario+pleads+guilty+money+laundering+Calgary/4429362/story.html

Authorities in Alberta registered their first conviction under federal anti-money laundering legislation Thursday after a man pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle nearly $500,000 into the country.

Joseph Dale Butler of St. Thomas, Ont., pleaded guilty in a Calgary court to one count of laundering proceeds of crime under the Criminal Code and a count of failing to report the importation of currency over $10,000 -an offence under the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act.

It was the first time authorities in this province laid charges under the money laundering act, which came into force in 2003.

Butler, 35, was entering Canada at the Coutts crossing south of Lethbridge when the Canada Border Services Agency found $477,050 US inside a secret compartment in a horse trailer.

Butler is scheduled to be sentenced on May 25 in Calgary.

He was allowed to return to St. Thomas.