GUARD CAUGHT IN BORDER RAID

Officer Bribed By Smugglers, Say RCMP

It was midnight when the two SUVs pulled up to the Pacific Highway
truck crossing.

One of the vehicles contained three handguns and 208 kilograms of
cocaine, invisible to the casual observer and worth about $6 million wholesale.

One after the other, the vehicles were waved through the same border
station into Canada.

It was the final moment in a 13-month joint investigation by RCMP E
Division Border Integrity and the Canada Border Services Agency.

Moments after the vehicles entered the country, police rushed in to
arrest both drivers and the border guard who allegedly gave them safe
passage into the country.

Baljinder Kandola, a border services officer for six years, was
arrested late Thursday night. He faces six charges, including
importing cocaine and guns, breach of trust in connection with his
border duties and bribery.

The 35-year-old Surrey man is accused of allowing two Richmond men,
Shminder Johal, 34, and Herman Riar, 26, to enter Canada illegally,
one with an SUV filled with contraband. Johal and Riar face four charges each.

"To have the ability and the trust internationally to be able to
purchase this . . . quantity of cocaine can only be international
organized crime," RCMP Insp. Dan Malo said Friday. But the police
officer disputed the notion that gangs had infiltrated the Canadian
border service, saying it was simply one individual who had been corrupted.

Kim Scoville with Canada Border Services Agency called Kandola's
alleged behaviour "a betrayal."

"It's extremely disheartening, extremely frustrating and extremely
disappointing for all of the officers who go to work each and every
day to protect our borders," he said.

Officials do not know what booth they will be assigned to until they
begin work, he added. Kandola does not have a criminal record and was
forced to undergo regular "reliability" checks as a border official.

Police said the cocaine -- likely worth much more than $6 million
when divided and sold on the streets -- was destined for Lower
Mainland organized crime.

Search warrants were executed on the homes and vehicles of all three
men. Seized in one vehicle was 208 kilograms of cocaine, a
9-millimetre and a .45-calibre pistol, a .44-magnum revolver and 40
rounds of bullets. About $200,000 in cash was allegedly seized at Johal's home.

Malo said drug trafficking is "never a victimless crime" -- as last
week's mass murder in Surrey seems to underscore.

Kandola does not have a prior criminal record. But a man with the
same last name was killed in a gangland hit several years ago. It is
unclear if the border guard is related to Robbie Kandola, a
31-year-old gangster who was hit with several bullets as he got out
of a taxi in front of his Coal Harbour apartment in June 2002.

Meanwhile, a former CBSA officer was recently charged with three
counts of sexual assault related to accusations he strip-searched an
18-year-old woman in a washroom at the Douglas border crossing.