U.S. COAST GUARD OPERATING ON CANADIAN SIDE OF STRAIT

VANCOUVER -- U.S. Coast Guard vessels can now pursue smugglers fleeing
into the Canadian side of the Juan de Fuca Strait.

Under a pilot project dubbed Project Shiprider, RCMP officers are
onboard two U.S. Coast Guard vessels while U.S. authorities are
onboard two RCMP vessels.

The project, the first time there's been a strategic use of Canadian
and U.S. officers to combat organized crime, was also recently
introduced to a 100-kilometre stretch of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The unique cross-border policing deal "gives us the ability to cross
over in each others 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 on board the U.S. vessel can make the arrest in
Canadian waters.

The U.S. officer on board the Canadian boat has the same powers as an
RCMP officer, Ard said.

Giving a foreign police force powers in Canada isn't an unprecedented
development as secret service agents are given those privileges when
the U.S. president visits, such as during the recent summit in
Montebello, Que. But this is the first long-term partnership.

The West Coast operation is based out of Bellingham and Port Angeles,
and was 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 --
although it might be extended. Officers from both forces are trained
in the legal aspects of arrest in the U.S. and Canada.

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 ecstasy is also being smuggled
from the Lower Mainland by water into the U.S.

No public announcement was made about the pilot project because
authorities wanted to keep an element of surprise in their border
strategy, but people have spotted U.S. officers in Canadian waters,
forcing authorities to reveal some of the project's details.