Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-147_g31h.pdf
Page Number: 7.0

Cite as:  596 U. S. ____ (2022) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

informant who would help federal agents identify and ap-
prehend persons engaged in unlawful cross-border activity
on or near his property.  Boule claims that the Government 
has paid him upwards of $60,000 for his services. 

Ever the entrepreneur, Boule saw his relationship with 
Border Patrol as a business opportunity.  Boule would host 
persons  who  unlawfully  entered  the  United  States  as 
“guests” at the Inn and offer to drive them to Seattle or else-
where.  He  also  would  pick  up  Canada-bound  guests
throughout the State and drive them north to his property
along  the  border.  Either  way,  Boule  would  charge  $100–
$150 per hour for his shuttle service and require guests to
pay for a night of lodging even if they never intended to stay
at the Inn.  Meanwhile, Boule would inform federal law en-
forcement if he was scheduled to lodge or transport persons
of interest.  In short order, Border Patrol agents would ar-
rive  to  arrest  the  guests,  often  within  a  few  blocks  of  the
Inn.  Boule would decline to offer his erstwhile customers a 
refund.  In his view, this practice was “nothing any different 
than [the] normal policies of any hotel/motel.”  Id., at 120.1 
In  light  of  Boule’s  business  model,  local  Border  Patrol
agents,  including  petitioner  Erik  Egbert,  were  well  ac-
quainted with Smuggler’s Inn and the criminal activity that
attended it.  On March 20, 2014, Boule informed Agent Eg-
bert that a Turkish national, arriving in Seattle by way of
New York, had scheduled transportation to Smuggler’s Inn 
later that day.  Agent Egbert grew suspicious, as he could 
think of “no legitimate reason a person would travel from
Turkey to stay at a rundown bed-and-breakfast on the bor-
der in Blaine.”  Id., at 104.  The photograph below displays
the amenities for which Boule’s Turkish guest would have 

—————— 

1 Notwithstanding his defense of the Inn’s policies, Boule was recently
convicted in Canadian court for engaging in human trafficking.  In De-
cember 2021,  he pleaded guilty to trafficking 11 Afghanis and Syrians 
into Canada.  He billed each foreign national between $200 and $700 for 
the trip.  See Regina v. Boule, 2021 BCSC 2561, ¶¶7–11.