A Bellingham man who tried to sell a map of surveillance equipment on the U.S.-Canadian border was sentenced Friday to a year in prison and three years of supervised release.

Leif Rankin, 32, was arrested in September and pleaded guilty two months later in U.S. District Court to theft of government property. Rankin tried to sell the map to someone he thought was involved in smuggling drugs across the border.

But his buyer was working with authorities.

“Once you sold those documents, you had no idea how they would be used,” U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said. “They could have been used by terrorists.”

Authorities say Rankin was trying to get $6,000 for the map. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials praised the undercover operation and the work of Homeland Security Investigations.

Follow this link to read more about Rankin’s case.

For more Seattle police and crime news visit the front page of the Seattle 911 blog.