Hugh M. Stevens, a harness racer who used horse trailers to move illegal drug shipments

throughout the United States and Canada, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison this

afternoon.

When Stevens, 63, of Derby, was arrested in 2004, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents

called him the transportation coordinator of one of North America's biggest methamphetamine

rings.

His wife, former Lackawanna restaurant operator Sandra Jacobi Stevens, 52, was sent to

prison for five years for assisting her husband.

The amount of methamphetamine that could have been made with the ephedrine shipped by

Stevens was "astronomical ... astounding," District Judge William M. Skretny said.

The sentencings concluded a long, bitter court battle between the U.S. Attorney's office

and Stevens, once a colorful and popular figure in the local harness racing community.

Stevens and his wife claimed for years they were innocent victims, but Stevens last

September pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy and engaging in a continuing criminal

enterprise.

Speaking in court today, both Stevens and his wife blamed their convictions on what they

called "lies" by a government witness and a prosecutor.

"Injustice has been done here to us, to me," Jacobi Stevens, in tears, told the judge. "The

main issue is we didn't know it was methamphetamine. ... How can you guys convict me and put

me in jail for something I didn't do?"

Stevens made similar remarks, even though he pleaded guilty.

A citizen of Scotland who is a legal resident alien in the United States, Stevens has asked

for permission to serve part of his prison term in his native country. Prosecutors do not

oppose the request, but both the U.S. and Scottish governments still have to approve it.

After a trial in October 2008, Jacobi Stevens was convicted of a smuggling charge and two

conspiracy charges, all felonies. She was acquitted of a third conspiracy charge.

DEA tape recordings of Stevens and his wife discussing drug shipments were key pieces of

evidence in the case, said federal drug prosecutors Thomas S. Duszkiewicz and Michael

DiGiacomo.

The DEA investigation turned up clear evidence that Stevens knew he was breaking the law

and that his wife knew it, according to prosecutors.

A key event occurred on July 10, 2004, when another racer hired by Stevens was caught at

the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge with 430 pounds of ephedrine hidden in his trailer with a horse,

authorities said .

Federal agents have estimated that the amount of ephedrine Stevens shipped could have been

used to make more than 1,350 pounds of methamphetamine, Skretny said.

Ephedrine, which cannot be sold in large quantities, is a key ingredient in making the

highly addictive methamphetamine, DEA agents said.

Agents said they watched Stevens load the ephedrine into the horse trailer earlier in the

day at a race track near Hamilton, Ont.

According to prosecutors, Stevens made this remark to a witness shortly after his arrest:

"Money talks. ... I won't do a day in jail."

More than 80 people in the United States and Canada have been convicted in connection with

the methamphetamine probe, Duszkiewicz said.

Jacobi Stevens is still working out a property forfeiture agreement with the government

that is expected to cost her at least $150,000, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard D.

Kaufman.

Jacobi Stevens is represented by attorney Cheryl Meyers Buth, and Stevens by Angelo

Musitano and Fonda Dawn Kubiak, all court-appointed.

"It's a sad, sad set of circumstances for two people who had a lot to offer society,"

Meyers Buth said.