CUSTOMS RIGHT TO SEIZE $300K IN CASH: JUDGE

'Credible Evidence'; Excuse For Having Money Bordered On 'Absurd'

When Canadian customs officers found $300,000 stuffed in the jack
storage compartment of Lauren Ondre's truck, she at first claimed to
know nothing about it.

Then she said she wanted it back.

Now a Federal Court judge has decided the matter, ruling that the
border officers had good reason to seize the cash, and that Ms.
Ondre's explanation for how it got there was "bordering on the absurd."

In a ruling handed down in Vancouver, Justice Judith Snider said the
Canada Border Services Agency had "credible evidence" the money was
linked to crime.

The dispute began just after midnight on April 2, 2005, when Ms.
Ondre's truck was searched at the Pacific Highway border crossing as
she was on her way to Vancouver.

CBSA officers found 28 bundles of cash, held together with elastic
bands. There were 6,521 $20 bills, more than 2,000 $10 bills and an
assortment of fives, 50s and 100s. It added up to US$292,195.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ms. Ondre replied when the
border officer asked her about it.

The money smelled of marijuana, and traces of cocaine were detected on
another $1,000 found in Ms. Ondre's backpack. Suspecting they had
stumbled across the proceeds of crime, the CBSA seized the money.

Cases like this are becoming more frequent as the government enforces
a relatively new law that requires travellers to notify Canada customs
when they are carrying large sums of cash across the border.

Designed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, the rule
does not stop Canadians from moving money in and out of the country,
but anything more than $10,000 must be declared.

Undeclared cash can be seized. Those who want it back have to apply to
the government, or eventually the courts, where more and more such
cases are ending up.

Between the time the new rules came into effect in January, 2003 and
August 31, 2006, the CBSA made more than 5,800 such seizures totaling
in excess of $145 million, said agency spokesman Derek Mellon.

Vancouver lawyer Alex Stojicevic, who represented Ms. Ondre in her
court appeal, said most people get their money back after paying a
fine because they are able to show the cash was not derived from crime.

But some have a hard time because of the way the law was set up. The
CBSA can seize money if its officers have reasonable grounds to
suspect it is the proceeds of crime. But to get it back, a citizen has
to prove beyond doubt that it wasn't.

"Really what the court ruled in Ondre and in the other cases is that
basically once a reasonable suspicion has been established, then
basically you have to cancel all doubt," he said.

Two months after the cash was seized from her truck, Ms. Ondre applied
to have her money returned.

By way of explanation, she presented affidavits sworn by a California
lawyer, Thomas J. Ballanco.

The affidavits said the money belonged to investors who were funding
legal action against the U.S. government for alleged violations of the
North American Free Trade Agreement.

The money was supposedly to be used to pay the legal fees of a
Canadian lawyer.

Mr. Ondre was described as an agent for an association of investors
who were to receive a portion of the proceeds of the lawsuit if it was
successful.

"The association was basically funding a NAFTA tribunal case and that
was the purpose of the cash," Mr. Stojicevic said. "My understanding
was that this was on behalf of a bankrupt hemp company that wanted to
do a NAFTA challenge."

But the CBSA was wary of the explanation. A Customs officer working on
the case pointed out that a Canadian lawyer (not Mr. Stojicevic) who
represented Ms. Ondre "is one who works primarily for clients involved
in marijuana grow operations and is dedicated to such matters as
advocating the decriminalization of marijuana."

Another concern was a business card found in Ms. Ondre's car during
the border search. It was the card of Devin Coverdale, who the court
decision said had been stopped at the border on May 3, 2005 with
US$27,900 in undeclared currency hidden in the air duct system of his
truck.

A CBSA regional intelligence officer identified Mr. Coverdale as
"linked to a group involved in cannabis smuggling between British
Columbia and Washington State," the judge wrote.

On March 26, 2006, the government ruled that the seizure was
justified.

"The manner of concealment, the fact that there are safer means of
transporting currency across an international border, that the money
was not packaged consistent with having been received from a financial
institution and that some of the money tested positive for and had a
strong odor of drugs, are reasonable grounds to suspect proceeds of
crime," the agency wrote. Ms. Ondre took the case to court, but the
judge dismissed her appeal on April 27, although the decision has not
been reported until now.