GUNS GET TOP DOLLAR

A street-level hood in Toronto will pay $2,000 in cash or marijuana
for a handgun worth $250 south of the border.

Stopping that deadly trade of American guns for Canadian bud is how
Special Agent Regina Lombardo of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms spends her days.

Arriving in 2005, in the notorious Summer of the Gun, Lombardo has
been stationed in Toronto to work with the Ontario's provincial
weapons enforcement unit. Her mission: Trace every recovered
U.S.-source crime gun.

"Most of it is in exchange for drugs," Lombardo said. "Your hydroponic
here is exchanged for the guns."

Although law enforcement in both countries have worked together
before, she was assigned to help set up a joint crime gun analysis
team, which she said is paying off.

Guns hit the streets from sources on both sides of the border and she
helps co-ordinate police forces to shut off the trigger trade,
Lombardo said. A trafficker with access to guns in the U.S. who can
get them to Canada will be rewarded with an inflated price because of
the high demand for firearms. The traffickers are usually banned from
buying guns so they use "straw purchasers," sometimes as many as 10 to
15.

TOP GUNS

The top four firearms found in Ontario and traced back to the U.S. by
the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms are all handguns:

1) Smith and Wesson .38-calibre revolver

2) Glock 9mm

3) Ruger 9mm

4) Hi-Point

HANDGUN PRICE RANGES

Glock 9mm U.S. cost - $600 Canadian sale price - $3,000

Hi-Point U.S. cost - $200 to $250 Canadian - $2,000

Lorson U.S. cost - $150 to $175 Canadian - at least $1,000