Married At First Sight star Tim Smith reveals he flew drugs from Canada to the US

Married At First Sight star Tim Smith has revealed shock details of his life as an international drug smuggler, including nightclub encounters, helicopters, an extradition and jail time.

MAFS groom Timothy Smith served time in maximum security prison in the US 17 years ago. Picture: Channel 9

Married At First Sight star Tim Smith flew hockey bags full of marijuana from Canada to the US as part of an international pot smuggling operation masterminded by pizza shop operating, construction company owning drug lord who fled to Spain as the US authorities closed in on him.

Melbourne-based Smith, 51, revealed on A Current Affair this week he had been jailed in America in 2006/2007 for his role in a drug importing operation in the early 2000s.

However, the full details of Smith’s time as cross border dope runner, read like pages ripped from a Hollywood script with nightclub encounters, helicopters, international escapes, an extradition, jail time and a drug importing ringleader whose associate had been accused of bribing a witness in a US murder linked to a motorcycle gang member.

MAFS groom Timothy Smith was jailed for his role in a drug importing operation. Picture: ACA.

Smith was a small player in the sophisticated drug smuggling operation that was led by then Seattle businessman, David Ronald Mendoza, who pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Seattle in November 2009 of conspiracy to import more than 1000 kgs of marijuana into America and sentenced to 14 years in jail.

US media reports say Mendoza first became aware that US authorities were on to him in 2006 when he was rear-ended while driving and the bumper on his car fell off to reveal a GPS tracker which read “property of the federal government.”

Mendoza’s illegal Canada/US pot trade was surveilled by US authorities for five years leading up to August 2006, according to his 2009 plea deal, which notes Smith’s role in the scheme.

The Seattle resident was described in the document as a “large-scale transporter of Canadian marijuana both into the United States from Canada and through the United States.”

Smith flew bags of marijuana from Canada to the US. Picture: A Current Affair

As part of the plea agreement Mendoza admitted he was responsible for a 180kg load of British Columbia cannabis (BC Bud) found hidden in nine hockey bags in a load of timber at the border crossing at Blaine, Washington in April 2003.

He admitted to having more than 400 kgs of marijuana flown via helicopter into the US in 2005.

In 2006, additional loads of marijuana belonging to Mendoza were seized.

Smith’s involvement in the drug smuggling scheme in February 2006 is recorded in Mendoza’s plea deal, detailing how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents seized 120kg of marijuana in five hockey bags from two of Mendoza’s associates who had had the haul delivered to them by Smith.

“This load was flown across the border by a helicopter piloted by Timothy Smith,” the plea deal stated.

“After Smith dropped the marijuana to (the associates), Smith flew to another location in the United States where he picked up Mendoza. Smith then flew to an airport in British Columbia and proceeded to drive with Mendoza to the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia.”

Smith told ACA he became involved in the drug smuggling ring after meeting people while working at the nightclub in Canada. Picture: Channel 9

Further on it is stated: “Pilot Tim Smith admitted he worked for Mendoza and made at least one prior marijuana smuggling trip from him.”

Smith was arrested in June 2006 at Los Angeles airport as he got off a Qantas flight after returning to the US from Australia where he had been visiting his mother in Queensland who had been diagnosed with cancer.

He was charged with importing and distributing marijuana, reached an agreement with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to one charge and was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. He did his time in a federal prison in Seattle and was deported back to Australia at the end of 2007.

While he was in jail, his mother, Varee, and his brother, Dave, both died.

Meanwhile, realising the noose was tightening, Mendoza made a dash across the US border to Mexico and then moved to Spain in mid 2006. He was extradited to the US in April 2009 where he did a deal on his drug smuggling charges, received a 14-year jail sentence and had to forfeit to the government four properties he owned including a movie theatre in Bend, Oregon and his pizza shop.

Mendoza had previously been convicted of cocaine possession in 1990 and conspiracy to distribute hashish and cocaine in 1993.

Smith told ACA that he became involved in the drug smuggling ring after meeting people while working in a nightclub in Canada, where he was living in the early 2000s, who encouraged him to learn to fly a helicopter.

He took a lesson, was told he was a natural and next minute was an air jockey on the road to ruin.

Lucinda Light and Timothy Smith at the MAFs dinner party. Picture: NOVA Entertainment

Smith said he flew more than 20 trips carrying marijuana from Canada to the US in 2006 over a three-month period, being paid $100,000 for each delivery.

“I would take off from a little unmanned airport. I had the helicopter sorted and I’d fly up a valley and into a creek,” he told ACA.

“I’d meet a 4WD and land behind it and within a minute the helicopter would be loaded with marijuana, and I’d fly south into the US.”

He said he deeply regretted his drug running days.

“If I could go back and change it, I would. There’s no question I’d change it,” Smith said.

“I did something very, very stupid and I paid the price. I paid the ultimate price.

“I am sorry for what I did, sorry to everyone I hurt, and I don’t want anyone to do what I did, and I don’t want you to think there is some sort of glamorous life out there.

“They are Hollywood movies and there are real consequences.

“It is something I am not proud of, I am definitely not proud of it, but it does not define who I am. I am not the same person I was 17 years ago.”