DEAL LETS POLICE CROSS BORDERS

U.S. Coast Guard vessels can now pursue smugglers fleeing to the
Canadian side of the Juan De Fuca Strait.

Under a pilot project dubbed Project Shiprider, RCMP officers are
aboard two U.S. coast guard vessels while U.S. authorities are aboard
two RCMP vessels.

The unique cross-border policing deal "gives us the ability to cross
over in each other's waters and perform ship boardings," said U.S.
Coast Guard spokesman Shaun Eggart yesterday.

"Usually if a coast guard vessel takes up a chase, it ends when the
boat is in Canadian waters," said RCMP spokesman Supt. Bill Ard.

Now, the Canadian aboard the U.S. vessel can make the arrest in
Canadian waters.

The U.S. officer aboard the Canadian boat has the same powers as an
RCMP officer, Ard said. The only other time a U.S. peace officer has
the right of arrest in Canada is if they are guarding a visiting U.S.
dignitary.

The operation is based out of Bellingham and Port Angeles and is
designed to deal with the threat of terrorism and a rise in
water-based smuggling of drugs and cash. It started in early August
and expires at the end of this month.

Officers from both forces are trained in the legal aspects of arrest
in Canada and the U.S.

Ard said there are eight RCMP and 10 U.S. Coast Guard officers
involved in the project.

Mike Milne, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman, said
water-based smugglers plying the Juan de Fuca Strait are using
everything from kayaks to jet boats.

"We see B.C. bud coming down into the U.S. and money being smuggled in
both directions," said Milne, adding ecstacy is also being smuggled
from the Lower Mainland by water into the U.S.

Project Shiprider was also recently introduced to a 100-kilometre
stretch of the St. Lawrence seaway.

It is the first time there's been a strategic use of Canadian and U.S.
officers to combat organized crime.