TRAFFIC POLICE OFTEN THE FIRST TO SPOT DRUGS, GUNS

Haul, Numbers Become Bigger Every Year

Traffic police in B.C.'s Interior busted alleged criminals on the go
last year to the tune of $20 million in drugs, guns and money --
almost tripling the haul of 2006.

The 126 RCMP officers in B.C.'s southeast district seized $3.1
million in cash, 200,000 ecstacy pills, 11,000 marijuana plants, 500
kilograms of packaged marijuana, five kg of cocaine and 37 handguns,
including an Uzi sub-machine gun and assault rifles, when pulling
over drivers for minor offences such as speeding or having broken tail lights.

That's up from $7.5 million in contraband seized in 2006, says
Kelowna RCMP Insp. Randy Kolibaba.

The Interior RCMP area is bordered by the Alberta boundary, the U.S.
border, the Coquihalla toll booths and Blue River, near Clearwater,
in the north.

Kolibaba said there's no doubt the large busts are related to
organized crime. Traffic officers are exposed to more gangsters on a
daily basis than any other unit, he said.

"We've become more strategic, more intelligence-led," said Kolibaba.
"Every ounce of contraband, bought or sold, has to travel on a roadway."

The total number of seizures in 2007 in the southeast district was
787, or an average of more than two a day.

This year isn't shaping up to be any different, with police this week
stopping a vehicle with a mechanical defect and finding more than two
kg of marijuana, $10,000 in cash and a loaded handgun in the car.

And last week, a traffic officer in the Barriere detachment stopped a
driver on a routine traffic violation and ending up busting him for
$30,000 in marijuana grow-op equipment, such as lights, fertilizers
and pots, along with $10,000 in cash.

Kolibaba said officers aren't targeting certain vehicles or drivers
with previous convictions but are finding them in routine stops or in
seatbelt or drunk-driving checkpoints.

"We don't profile anybody," he said. "This is a true story: When an
officer pulled someone over at an impaired-driving road check, he
[the driver] had a loaded handgun between his legs," he said. The
officer later discovered 500 rounds of ammunition.

Another officer who pulled over a car for speeding was greeted with a
waft of fresh marijuana smoke and the driver was arrested and his car searched.

Last year the officers also wrote 415 tickets for impaired driving
and 10,070 seatbelt and 31,074 speeding infractions.

That was up from 327 impaired-driving, 9,628 seatbelt and 29,489
speeding violations in 2006.