STAY CONNECTED: Have the stories that matter most delivered every night to your email inbox. Subscribe to our daily local news wrap.

Ontario mom who smuggled guns from U.S. sentenced to nearly two years in jail

Jan 26, 2017 | 10:45 AM

WINDSOR, Ont. — A mother of three is going to jail for nearly two years for smuggling guns into Canada.

Michelle Downey, 38, had tearfully pleaded to be allowed to serve her sentence at home in Lasalle, Ont., with her children, but Justice Scott Campbell feels a term of house arrest is not appropriate.

In April 2013, Downey was referred to secondary inspection at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., where Canada Border Services Agency officers found three loaded guns, magazines and ammunition in garbage bags behind the glove box of her vehicle.

Downie had argued that she thought she was only bringing in cash from the United States.