ILLEGAL GUNS FUELLED BY HUGE POT TRADE

Cross-Border Shopping Includes Swapping Firearms For Drugs In What
Accounts For A Deadly Mix

The scourge of gun violence plaguing Toronto streets is being fuelled
by a cross-border guns for marijuana trade, law enforcement officials
tell the Sunday Sun.

A $2,000 half-kilo of Canadian marijuana trafficked into the U.S.
jumps in value to around $4,000, double that if it's sold in southern
states.

Meanwhile, a handgun picked up for $250 in an American gun shop can
fetch $2,000 on Toronto's streets.

It's a supply and demand illegal trade-off that rewards thugs and has
the cops fighting an increasingly costly war against drugs and guns.

Worse, gang and gun violence are leaving a growing number of bloody
casualties.

Shutting off the cross-border trade of Canadian weed for American guns
has been the focus of several high-profile busts that demonstrate
growing co-operation between law enforcement on both sides.

HERCULEAN EFFORT

One spot along the border that has seen a steady flow of hydroponic
pot is Cornwall, where they've been working across jurisdictions and
borders in a Herculean effort to stem the green tide.

"Criminal organizations don't recognize the border whereas we have to
and we need tools and resources to be able to work around that," said
RCMP Sgt. Michael Harvey.

Breaking down the border -- from a jurisdiction standpoint -- is how
police on both sides say they can shut off the pipeline of the guns
heading north and drugs going south.

For years, the area has been a whirlwind of smuggling -- illegal
cigarettes north help fund marijuana smuggling south which helps buy
cocaine and guns going back north.

TAKING ADVANTAGE

"They're taking advantage of the geography of the Akwesasne Mohawk
territory which is situated on New York, Quebec and Ontario
jurisdictions," Harvey told the Sun from the Central St. Lawrence
Valley RCMP detachment.

"What we see here, and our intelligence reveals, is that organized
crime groups based out of Montreal, Toronto, we've identified 105
across Canada that are involved in various levels of the illicit
tobacco trade."

The illegal cigarette trade is key, Harvey said, because its money
funds drug smuggling.

"These organizations have set up the same smuggling routes to smuggle
contraband cigarettes north and marijuana and ecstasy south -- we also
get cocaine coming north," he said.

As goes the cigarette trade, so goes the drug trade, and if the police
seizures of cigarettes indicates drugs are doing well.

"On a daily basis we're seizing thousands and thousands of contraband
cigarettes which are brought across the St. Lawrence on boats and then
distributed to smoke shacks located in Ontario and Quebec in
aboriginal communities," Harvey said.

"It's the same going south, there is hockey bags full of marijuana and
ecstasy going south on daily basis -- the same operators, the same
boats being used."

CROSSING EASIER

In the winter, crossing the St. Lawrence is even easier with ice
bridge routes.

"To get them to face the strong arm of the law on both sides of the
border, that takes incredible cooperation," Harvey said.

The RCMP works with local police including the Akwesasne Mohawk Police
Service and U.S. authorities including the New York State Police, U.S.
Border patrol and Homeland Security.

Last year, Project Shiprider, a two-month operation between the RCMP
and the U.S. Coast Guard, gave both forces peace officer status on
both sides of the border.

"We were able to pursue the boats that were leaving from Canadian
waters heading towards American waters," Harvey said.

Most boats head for the Quebec portion of the Akwesasne Mohawk
territory on the south side of the St. Lawrence.

"If it were to be successful, and get to the Akwesasne Mohawk
territory Quebec portion, then it's just a car ride across into New
York state because that area does not have (U.S.) Customs," Harvey
said.

BIG SEIZURE

Between 2004 and 2006, police on both sides of the border seized 1,500
kilos of marijuana along with $3,846,000 in US cash.

Last year they seized 1,591.39 pounds of marijuana and $419,833
cash.

In January alone this year they've seized 60 kilos of marijuana sealed
in air tight bags and zipped up in hockey bags.

"We have the resources so we're working together but (there is) 105
organized crime groups and we can't take them all down in one day,"
Harvey said. "That's the problem...the sheer volume, to get to the
highest level of an organization will take 18 months to two years."

Aside from arrests when police swoop in they want to ensure they can
seize the assets.