BANGOR (AP) – An Oklahoma man accused of trying to help his girlfriend enter the country illegally pleaded guilty Thursday to a violation of immigration law and was sentenced to 13 days in jail.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Jay Benjamin Bost, 29, of Tulsa, Okla., was also fined $5,000 and made subject to six months of supervised release.

Authorities alleged that on July 30 while attempting to enter the United States at Coburn Gore, Bost lied to customs and border patrol officers by telling them he did not have a passenger in his vehicle.

Authorities said that in fact Bost’s 18-year-old girlfriend, French citizen Alizee Guiet, was hiding in a sleeping bag under a homemade bed in the back of Bost’s Ford Bronco.

Guiet had been denied entry into the United States at Jackman one day earlier for visa waiver program violations, authorities said.

Bost allegedly told officers in Coburn Gore that Guiet was on a bus to Quebec City.

According to a lawyer who represented Guiet, the couple had been camping in Canada and were heading to Oklahoma when they were arrested.

Guiet was sentenced in August to 13 days, the amount of time she already served in jail, to be followed by one year of supervised release.

She has since been deported, authorities said.

Bost, who authorities said told officers that he and Guiet had devised the immigration scheme together, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting attempted illegal re-entry into the United States of an alien who had been denied entry.

U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby issued a statement Thursday praising the investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

AP-ES-12-29-05 1832EST


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