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Woman, 66, jailed on bogus drug charge

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WINNIPEG, Manitoba, July 27 (UPI) -- An American grandmother says she may sue Canadian authorities after she was jailed for 12 days over motor oil that was mistaken for heroin.

Janet Goodin, 66, of Warroad, Minn., was traveling to Sprague, Manitoba, to visit her daughters when she was stopped at the border in April, she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

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Canadian border guards searched her minivan and found a canning jar holding a dark liquid. Their initial test convinced them it was heroin, and Goodin was handcuffed, arrested and charged with possession for trafficking and importing a controlled substance.

"I said, 'That's not even possible,'" Goodin recalled. "I said, 'I'm sure it's oil that was put in there that was left over or something.' And they said, 'No, it tests positive for traces of something.'"

With no money for bail, she spent 12 days in the Winnipeg Remand Center before later tests disproved the suspicion.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said he would get a report but would not comment on "operational matters."

"The inmates were all very good to me. I wasn't afraid of them at all," Goodin said. "But being locked up … was so scary."

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