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  1. #1
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    Seizing on drug tradeSmugglers go to great lengths to hide s

    May 19, 2008

    Seizing on drug tradeSmugglers go to great lengths to hide stash
    By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU







    Secretly stashed in a transport truck hauling lettuce and lemons, stowed in the hidden panel of an elderly couple's car, buried in a mail shipment of children's toys.

    Sneaky drug smugglers have tried every trick of the trade to move cocaine, marijuana, opium, heroin, ecstasy and most other narcotics across the border into Canada -- using everything from hollowed-out hockey sticks and bottles of booze to a wheelchair and commercial hot dog stand to hide their stash.

    In the last two years, Canadian border guards confiscated drugs worth more than $750 million at land, air and sea crossings, according to internal documents from the Canada Border Services Agency's Strategic Intelligence Analysis division obtained by Sun Media under Access to Information. While the total number of seizures rose from 728 to 855 in 2007, the street value of confiscated contraband actually fell from $455 million in 2006 to $296 million last year.

    At Toronto's Pearson International Airport -- Canada's No. 1 portal for drug smugglers -- innovative importers were nabbed trying to stash opium in chocolate bar wrappers and Iranian carpets last year. Marijuana was hidden in granola bars or Jamaican coffee, heroin concealed in false-bottom suitcases and liquid cocaine was stored in a dozen cans of beer one Peruvian passenger claimed as his personal exemption.

    The documents show the nation's international mail centres, marine ports and land border crossings were also hubs for illicit entries last year.

    SECRET PANELS

    One elderly couple in their 70s was caught crossing the Ambassador Bridge with 9 kg of marijuana stuffed inside a false compartment in the rear seat of their vehicle. Another bust found a Bulgarian national trying to smuggle in pot mixed with a truckload of carrots and beets.

    "They're very creative, using modified vehicles and secret panels, and all kinds of methods," said Ron Moran, national president of the Customs Excise Union representing border guards. "In spite of that, officers are really good at developing the ability to catch things."

    Drug detection dogs and intelligence networks assist CBSA officers to nab illicit drugs at air, land and water ports, he said.

    According to one internal report, dated August 2007 called the CBSA National Drug Assessment, the United Kingdom ranks highest as the country of "origin or transit" for drug seizures at Canadian border points. Linked with 125 seizures, it was above the U.S., which had 79 busts. China was third with 71 and India fourth with 68. Thailand, Jamaica and the Netherlands were also named major source countries on a long list that included Afghanistan, Pakistan, Poland and Haiti.

    The same report says smugglers are trafficking drugs into Canada through the U.S. in fewer, but larger shipments.

    "The highway commercial stream poses the greatest threat of all modes/streams for large-scale cocaine smuggling into Canada," it notes.

    NDP MP Brian Masse said drugs seized at the border are only the tip of the iceberg. He called for more inspections and a greater emphasis on marine ports, pointing to a growing problem of big containers of contraband arriving from overseas that face few inspections.

    'GAPING HOLE'

    "We know for sure drugs are getting in, and I would suspect weapons as well. That's a gaping hole, not just for Canada, but for the U.S. as well," he said. "We spend a lot on our land border crossings, but very little on stopping them from coming internationally. Both administrations have failed utterly in this effort, and many of these drugs and weapons could be stopped coming in to North America if we stopped them at our ports."

    Reports detail how drug smugglers use dryer sheets, spices, tuna cans and fruit to mask the scent of drugs and decoys like PlayStation video game systems, innersoles of shoes, candles and sacks of sugar to thwart suspicion.

    Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the government is cracking down on drug smuggling by investing in CBSA for improved detection measures, lab testing of precursor chemicals entering Canada and greater investigation and border intelligence capabilities.

    ---

    2007 DRUG BUSTS AT THE BORDER

    - A courier parcel with 2 kg of heroin originating in Afghanistan was seized at Montreal's Trudeau International Airport. The package was declared as "spare parts" destined for a Montreal medical clinic.

    - 117 kg of cocaine worth $14.6 million was intercepted at the Pacific Hwy. crossing in B.C.; 100 bricks were stashed in eight boxes of lemons from California.

    - After detecting trace elements on a passenger's nose ring, officers at Toronto's Pearson International Airport found cocaine concealed in the bottom liner of a suitcase.

    - At the Toronto International Mail Centre, 1 kg of coca leaves from a parcel originating in Peru was disguised as Inca tea and another 240 g of cocaine was found in plastic tampon containers from Guyana.

    - At Montreal's Trudeau International Airport, 4.5 litres of liquid cocaine worth $1.1 million was seized from a Canadian couple returning from Peru. It was hidden in a bottle of Baileys Irish Cream.

    - 847 grams of cocaine was seized in a Montreal postal unit in a parcel originating from Haiti. It was concealed in three children's books.

    - 3 kg of cocaine was seized at Calgary International Airport from a passenger returning from Sudan.

    - 3 kg of cocaine was hidden in eight packages of buttons in a package originating in Paraguay and destined for Calgary.

    - A postal parcel destined for Winnipeg was seized with a compact disc containing 1,022 doses of steroids.

    - CBSA, RCMP and Ottawa police busted a khat smuggling ring operating through Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. A baggage ramp attendant supervisor was switching khat-filled suitcases on conveyor belts to avoid scrutiny by CBSA officers. The ring had smuggled 1,788 bundles of khat on five occasions since April 2006.

    - 2 kg of opium originating in Azerbaijan and destined for Ottawa was seized at Toronto's Pearson airport, stuffed in briefcases.

    - 350,000 doses of ecstasy in 13 vacuum-sealed bags were seized from the backseats of a tour bus crossing at the Peace Bridge.

    - 173 kg of bricks of cocaine worth $21.6 million were discovered under dryer sheets in luggage and mixed among produce in a tractor trailer crossing the Ambassador Bridge from Arizona and California.

    - A parcel originating in Egypt and bound for Winnipeg was intercepted at Vancouver International Airport with 7,182 doses of steroids hidden in a speaker cavity.

    - 600 magic mushrooms were seized at Pearson airport in a parcel marked "brochures and samples" from the Netherlands.

    - 43 kg of heroin was discovered at Pearson from a commercial flight from Russia in a parcel containing cricket bats and balls.


    http://winnipegsun.com/News/Canada/2008 ... 6-sun.html
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  2. #2
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    I doubt seriously the US is bothering to go to the extent they are......hate to know the truth for whats getting in here.
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