In late 2024, two B.C. men were staring at up to 20 years in prison for allegedly attempting to subvert U.S. clean air laws by smuggling millions of dollars worth of illegal car parts across the border.

But in late January, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration made a U-turn on environmental law enforcement.

On social media, the Department of Justice announced it was ending criminal prosecutions of people accused of engine tampering with parts commonly known as defeat devices.

Defeat devices are a range of hardware and software gadgets to bypass or disable legally required emission control systems on diesel cars and trucks.

Among those whose criminal cases that have been dismissed are Philip John Sweeney of Coquitlam and Kevin Paul Dodd — last known to be in Maple Ridge but the U.S. Marshals Service told CBC News last week he is a fugitive because of the case.

“It’s hard to hear,” former U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref, who announced the charges against those men in 2024, said in an interview last week about the blanket dismissals. 

“Seasoned investigators have really dedicated years to ensuring that these cases were properly investigated, properly charged, and were working through the system in a way that really was to serve the public and to serve public health.”

But it likely won’t be hard to hear for Dodd, Sweeney and their co-accused, who no longer face the threat of years in prison for what prosecutors described as a years-long scheme violating the U.S. Clean Air Act and earning tens of millions of dollars along the way.

Charges never tested

The allegations were never proven in court. CBC was unable to get on-the-record comment from the accused or their lawyers.

Prosecutors claimed in an indictment that Dodd, Sweeney and American father-and-son John Wesley Owens and Joshua Wesley Owens smuggled $33 million US worth of illegal defeat devices from Canada into the U.S. in an evolving operation involving several companies, fully-loaded box trucks of goods, a Cayman Islands website and then-novel AI technology.

The World Health Organization declared diesel engine exhaust as cancer-causing in 2012 and called for actions to reduce the general population’s exposure to it.

But evolving regulations spurred a growth industry of defeat devices, which experts like Kwantlen University automotive instructor Kameron Easton said can also provide greater engine power and cheaper maintenance.

“I understand the allure from a customer’s perspective … but there really is the invisible thing that you’re not seeing of polluting the environment, of affecting people’s breathing,” Easton, also a certified diesel truck inspector, said Easton. 

“It can cause a lot of health problems, so I don’t see the trade off as being worth it.” said Easton.

In 2020, the EPA reported its enforcement actions found over 550,000 diesel pickups had emissions controls tampered with in the U.S. alone in the preceding decade.

The impact of one of those tampered trucks on air quality, the EPA reported, is equivalent to about 16 compliant vehicles.

“Attempting to profit from evading pollution control systems puts the health and safety of everyone in our community at risk, especially children and individuals who suffer from asthma and respiratory illnesses,” Waldref said in a 2024 statement announcing the charges.

‘Don’t mention anything about it being illegal’

While never tested in court, the allegations were spelled out in a 2024 indictment.

It alleged the Owens and their companies purchased the defeat devices from Dodd, Sweeney and their respective companies, from Dec. 2015 to Nov. 2023.

It alleged the devices were sold online and may have led to “tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of illegally altered vehicles.”

The EPA began asking the Owens in 2019 about their Clean Air Act compliance, the indictment states.

Joshua Owens allegedly sent Dodd an email titled “Switching things up” in May 2020.

“I’m winding down this ‘legal entity’ and starting up another one. Feels like I’m on borrowed time with the EPA,” he allegedly wrote, later in the exchange writing, “Plan is to take a month off, build the new site and start back up… Any luck on a Cayman or Canada address I can use?”

Dodd allegedly responded, “Yeah I can get you either one!”

The indictment alleges Joshua Owens then started a new business in the Cayman Islands.

By 2021, Dodd was allegedly personally smuggling defeat devices across the Canada-U.S. border in a box truck.

“I guess they don’t care about the pallets, we got X-rayed and inspected last night and they didn’t say anything about it,” Dodd allegedly texted John Owens in Feb. 2022.

“Crazy stuff, see you Monday,” the elder Owens allegedly replied.

The indictment alleges Sweeney, too, smuggled defeat devices to the Owens and their companies, and also created software to beat emissions controls. 

The indictment further alleges, “in addition to communication from EPA, defendants were advised on multiple occasions by a private company and individuals of concerns that their marketing, sale and distribution of defeat devices violated the Clean Air Act and was illegal.”

Indeed, the indictment includes alleged emails from the Owens’ customers that highlight — for a variety of motives — the parts sold were outlawed.

The indictment also alleges the Owens used the then-novel ChatGPT AI chatbot for the scheme. 

Joshua allegedly sent his father a screenshot of AI-generated content created from the prompt, “Generate a 1,000 word article about the advantages of doing a [diesel particulate filter removal]. Don’t mention anything about it being illegal.”

Wyoming mechanic pardoned

The course of the prosecution changed in January 2026, when the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division stated on social media it will “no longer pursue criminal charges under the Clean Air Act based on allegations of tampering with onboard diagnostic devices in motor vehicles.”

“DOJ is committed to sound enforcement principles, efficient use of government resources, and avoiding overcriminalization of federal environmental law. In partnership with the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], DOJ will still pursue civil enforcement for these violations when appropriate.”

Even before the policy reversal, Trump pardoned a Wyoming mechanic sentenced to a year in jail and $50,000 US in fines for engine tampering.

It’s not clear how many defeat device cases were still active. An EPA backgrounder reports 1,762 civil cases and 17 criminal cases had been finalized from 2020 to 2023.

The U.S. District Court of Eastern Washington dismissed the charges against them — including money laundering and conspiracy — at the government’s request in mid-February. 

Messages for Sweeney left at his Langley auto shop were not returned. CBC News was unable to find up-to-date contact information for Dodd.

Lawyers reportedly representing the accused men, when contacted by CBC News via email, either declined to comment or did not respond on the record, although one, speaking on background, expressed confidence the criminal charges would have been dismissed by the court without the new administration’s intervention.

That lawyer argued importing and storing auto parts has never been illegal, only installing them on a vehicle.

At worst, the lawyer said, the accused men should have only faced civil penalties.

‘There’s no following the law, there’s no consistency’

The EPA, in Trump’s first term, identified “stopping the manufacture, sale and installation” of defeat devices as a priority enforcement area.

Observers say the abandonment of criminal charges over these acts is an example of weaker environmental policies in his second term.

“I think under the first Trump term, they were pulling back on regulation but not in the wholesale way that they are now. And so this is just part of that,” said Deborah Rivas, head of Stanford University’s environmental law program, highlighting Trump’s abandonment of fuel standards and the legal basis for climate regulation.

“It seems quite unprecedented but we say that a lot about this administration.”

While acknowledging the door is still open for civil penalties, Rivas is skeptical there’s an appetite to pursue that option.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which advocates for public employees “dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values,” issued a report in January finding civil pollution settlements have reached record lows since Trump’s second inauguration.

“There’s no following the law, there’s no consistency,” the group’s general counsel, Joanna Citron Day said. 

“We are not seeing new cases filed. We are not seeing cases concluded. We are not seeing the very robust and active enforcement … of our nation’s environmental laws.”

The DOJ, when asked about its enforcement actions, declined to comment.

Speaking again on background, the lawyer for one accused man said they are now seeking a dismissal with prejudice.

If granted, that means the charges can never be re-filed.