A map presented by prosecutors to jurors at Tim Morneau's trial: The green line marks out the route from Winnipeg Morneau and two other men took to smuggle millions of dollars worth of ecstasy into the U.S. in February 2008.A map presented by prosecutors to jurors at Tim Morneau's trial: The green line marks out the route from Winnipeg Morneau and two other men took to smuggle millions of dollars worth of ecstasy into the U.S. in February 2008. (U.S. Department of Justice)A Winnipeg man serving a 20-year sentence in a U.S. prison for smuggling ecstasy is hoping for a new trial based on alleged police misconduct during the routine traffic stop that led to his arrest.

Timothy Morneau and two other Winnipeg men were convicted in 2009 of drug-related offences after being pulled over on the side of I-94 near Glendive, Mont.

A broken headlight on the car the three men were travelling in led police to stop it, and police said inconsistent statements given by each of them led to the search and seizure of about $5 million US worth of ecstasy tablets.

Timeline of events:

Feb. 4, 2008: Mulder and Laurin are approached by a friend offering a way for the two to make some quick money. They meet Morneau that afternoon at a home in the North End of Winnipeg and leave the city with duffle bags packed with 223,810 tablets of ecstasy in at 4:30 p.m.

Feb. 5-7: The trio make their way west through Souris, Man., and finally end up in a motel in Deloraine, a broken, stolen snowmobile in tow. At some point Mulder returns to Winnipeg to retrieve some identification. The plan is that Morneau will cross the border on the snowmobile and be retrieved by Mulder in Lauren who will cross over in a car.

Feb. 8: The ecstasy is strapped to the back of the snowmobile. Morneau, Laurin and Mulder make plans to meet up in Bottineau, N.D. Video surveillance at the border shows Laurin and Mulder crossing over at 10:54 p.m. CT. They make their way to pick Morneau up as the snowmobile he was on broke down just over the U.S. side of the border.

Feb. 9: The three are pulled over in Montana at 7:50 a.m. for having a broken headlight. Just over an hour later, the car is searched with Mulder's consent, and the three are arrested. Morneau tells police in an interview that Mulder and Laurin knew nothing about the drugs.

Mar. 6: The trio are indicted for possession and conspiring to distribute the ecstasy. They each face a possible 40 years behind bars and a heft fine.

June 2: The three file a motion to squash the drug evidence seized by police from the car. After months of deliberation, the motion is denied by Judge Richard Cebull.

Jan. 7, 2009: Laurin and Mulder plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for leniency and testimony against Morneau. The possession charge is dropped.

Jan. 12: Morneau's jury trial begins and ends two days later with a conviction on both counts.

Apr. 8: Laurin and Mulder each receive four-year sentences for their role in the drug conspiracy.

Apr. 16: Morneau is sentenced to 240 months in prison plus three years of supervised probation.

May 6: Morneau files an appeal of his conviction.

Feb 1, 2010: Morneau's opening brief is filed.

But in court documents filed Feb.1 with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Morneau, 35, claimed the search was unconstitutional because it was based solely on a police officer's hunch and took more than an hour to complete.

"This case is a clear example of justifying bad conduct based on positive results," lawyer David Duke wrote in a pretrial brief.

"This stop allowed police to hold three men over an hour based on nothing except nervousness, and, much later, slight contradictions in their answers," Duke said.

"The law cannot tolerate faulty searches because this one happened to reveal a crime … this court should be more concerned with all the instances where innocent travellers are subjected to this type of behaviour which are probably never reported.

"We ask this court to look past the results to the dangerous and overboard police activity that produced it," Duke said.

Co-accused offered deals

Morneau tried a similar argument prior to his trial, but a judge allowed the drug evidence to stand. He is serving his 240-month sentence at a minimum-security prison in Louisiana.

If the appeal is successful, any new trial would likely fall apart because the drug evidence would be excluded. Prosecutors have yet to respond to Morneau's claims in the appeal documents.

The two other occupants of the car, Alan Mulder and Christian Laurin, were offered leniency in sentencing in exchange for guilty pleas and testimony against Morneau at his trial. They remain in prison serving four-year sentences.

At Morneau's trial, jurors heard the three men engaged in a haphazard plan to smuggle the ecstasy tablets over the border using a rickety stolen snowmobile.

Prosecutors were able to trace the movements of the men on their smuggling venture by using receipts for gas and hotels along the way that were seized from the car, which belonged to Mulder's parents.

Mulder and Laurin were to be paid $1,000 each out of the $5,000 Morneau claimed he was being paid to orchestrate the trip.

The three-day journey in Mulder's parents' car began in Winnipeg, and snaked through parts of western Manitoba and North Dakota until the men were arrested.

And while Morneau initially told police he didn't know Laurin and and Mulder and was simply picked up by them while hitchhiking, text messages seized from his Blackberry and Mulder's phone proved otherwise.

Morneau has never said where the drugs came from.