US jury convicted Border guard Desmone Bastian, 31 for accepting sexual favors from a B.C. hooker in exchange for letting her smuggle drugs into US.

However, the jury acquitted him on charges of aiding and abetting the importation of marijuana and conspiracy charges that could have brought a minimum 10 years in prison.

Bastian, a U.S. citizen who lives in Surrey, B.C., worked as a U.S. immigration inspector in Blaine, Wash., for eight years before being arrested in late 2006, after his connection with the prostitute, Sandra Maas, became clear. Prosecutors alleged he knew Maas was importing marijuana but never referred her for a secondary inspection.

Pronouncing sentence, the jury noted that the integrity of protecting national borders is too important to be compromised by the taking of illegal bribes.

Investigations revealed that the Maas, who agreed being a prostitute, used to call Bastian in advance to learn which lane he was working in at the busy border crossing. After arriving at the booth, she’d flash her breasts at him and hike up her skirt. Bastian wouldn’t ask any questions about duffel bags of marijuana stacked beside her, she said, calling the arrangement “mutually pleasurable.”

Bastian’s lawyer, Michael Nance, scoffed at the argument, arguing that had there really been bags of marijuana in plain view and if she really flashed Bastian, other guards and security cameras would have picked up on it. Bastion lawyer further told that Maas, who was facing more than 10 years in prison after being arrested at the border with drug pills in her underwear, made up the story to win a deal of just two years in prison.

On the witness stand, Bastian cried as he claimed “marital problems” drove him into the prostitute’s arms and he paid her twice for sex $150 each time. But he insisted the sexual relationship ended by 2002, that he never failed to perform his duty and he had no idea she was running drugs.

The jury is yet to pronounce sentence which could run up to 15 years but since bastion does not have any criminal history, he could get away with a lighter sentence that could be anywhere about 7 years.