TRAFFIC OFFICER HAPPENS ON RECORD COCAINE HAUL

OAKVILLE, ONT. - A chance encounter between a truck driver and an
alert motorist near a busy highway west of Toronto led to the biggest
cocaine seizure in Halton Region's history, police said yesterday.

By any measure it was an unusual bust.

Discovered Sunday morning by an astonished Ministry of Transportation
enforcement officer who thought he had encountered a traffic dispute,
the 205 kilograms of near-pure cocaine were inside an
Ontario-registered tractor-trailer that was hauling a load of carrots
and carrot juice and had crossed the U.S. border just hours earlier.

But far from being concealed, the big pile of drugs -- put on display
yesterday and guarded by tactical response police officers toting
automatic rifles -- was in plain view at the back of the trailer,
police said, suggesting the unidentified motorist stumbled across a
drop-off in progress.

At wholesale level, high-quality cocaine retails for about $35,000 a
kilogram, which would make the haul worth just over $7-million. Cut to
half-strength or less with baking soda or milk sugar and sold in units
of several grams each, the net value would be closer to
$20-million.

And while just one suspect is in custody, the 39-year-old truck driver
who was arrested at the scene, police are certain the scale of the
seizure denotes a larger operation.

"This represents a sophisticated group," Detective Inspector Chris
Perkins told a crowded media conference at Halton Police headquarters.
"Somewhere, someone is upset they lost a significant amount of money.
I suspect they're concerned."

The chain of events began around 9:30 a.m., when the mystery motorist
spotted the tractor-trailer parked at a truck stop, close to Highway
401 in Milton. Police would not say what made the man suspicious, but
for whatever reason he spoke to the driver.

The driver rode off but stopped his truck a second time less than a
kilometre away, with the motorist close behind, and a second
conversation -- not an argument, police stressed -- ensued.

That's when transit ministry officer Jason Leeman happened by, and
with some prompting from the motorist, he peered into the back of the
trailer.

"I was little overwhelmed, to tell you the truth, I was totally
shocked," Mr. Leeman said yesterday. "I had a very strong suspicion it
was narcotics but I wasn't sure what was going on. I was just trying
to offer my assistance."

He then contacted Halton Police. Drug-squad officers arrived soon
after, seized the bricks of cocaine (some of which had been cut open)
and arrested the truck driver.

While this set of circumstances is novel, cross-border smuggling is
not, said RCMP Superintendent Ron Allen, who oversees drug enforcement
in the GTA.

"Over the past several years, organized crime has infiltrated the
trucking industry in Ontario, especially with the movement of goods
back and forth across the border," he said.

"You have MDMA [ecstasy] and marijuana going south, with cocaine and
money coming back north. The main pipeline for cocaine right now is
through Mexico, across the U.S. border and up into Canada, with
truckers picking it up in the southern U.S."

Markings on this batch of book-sized kilogram bricks suggest they
originated in South America, most likely Colombia.

(redacted) is in custody, charged with possession of cocaine for the
purpose of trafficking.

His brother, (redacted), 28, said yesterday he and other worried
family members are sure his brother is innocent. "I just went to visit
him in jail today, and he said to me, 'I don't know what is going on.
I don't know why they took me.' "

(redacted) said that his brother, who lives in Brampton and has a
two-year-old son, has been a truck driver for 18 months and started
working for his current employer two months ago.