SEIZING ON DRUG TRADE

Smugglers Go To Great Lengths To Hide Stash

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.