Man sentenced to 1 year for selling sensitive border information
Feb 10, 2012, 12:14 PM | Updated: 1:29 pm
A man was sentenced to a year in prison Friday, after he tried to sell sensitive government maps to drug dealers.
Leif Rankin, 32, tried to sell a map detailing surveillance equipment at the U.S. – Canadian border to his “criminal associates.”
U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan says that Rankin’s price for the maps was a hefty $10,000.
Once a buyer came forward, the price was dropped to $6,000 says Durkan. “There was some negotiation involved and it appears that [Rankin] wasn’t finding many buyers.”
The buyer he did find was working with law enforcement, and just as the deal was about to close, Rankin was arrested. He’s been sentenced to a year in prison and three years of supervised release.
Though the maps are considered sensitive documents, Durkan says law enforcement has taken steps to ensure they would not be able to assist anyone in smuggling efforts across the border.
Where the maps came from is still an on-going investigation. Rankin claimed that he found the stolen maps at the garage sale of a border patrol agent. “At this point, we just have his word that that’s how the document was acquired.”
