Smuggler: An Epic Tale of Drugs, Gangs, and the New Underground Railroad to Canada
Smuggler is the epic tale of an ordinary man who had to rise to the occasion in extraordinary circumstances. It tells the true story of Bob Boulé, a conservative businessman who was thrust into the hidden world of drugs, gangs, smuggling, and sanctuary at the US-Canada border. After he opened a quirky bed and breakfast directly on the border line, drug traffickers, asylum seekers, and border officials all trusted him with their secrets about what was really going on at the northern border. Bob was eventually arrested twice for his help for the asylum seekers and then improbably found himself in front of the US Supreme Court in a third case about excessive force used against him by a Border Patrol agent. Through it all, Bob hid his secrets behind the flamboyant character he constructed for himself as the larger-than-life operator of the Smuggler’s Inn.
By Reece Jones and Greg Boos
Smuggler will be published in September 2026 with Prometheus Press. HBO has optioned the the film and TV rights.
The Smuggler's Inn Bed and Breakfast, in Blaine, Washington, as viewed from Zero Avenue in Canada. The rocks in the foreground are the border.