B.C. PAYS FOR BEING SUCH A SOFT TOUCH ON ILLEGAL DRUGS

Sandra Canedo Acosta, a single mom from Mexico, was given an airline
ticket to Vancouver and promised $1,000 for delivering eight bottles
of "toiletries" to a "blond woman" she was told would come to her hotel.

Arriving at YVR on Nov. 29, 2005, Canedo Acosta was challenged by
immigration officials and led off for further investigation.

Her story was that she had come to check out language schools for her
daughter, and that Francisco Gonzalez, a "very wealthy" man she had
known for five years, had "helped her out" with the ticket and given
her the bottles.

But investigators were puzzled by the fact that Canedo Acosta wasn't
due to return to Mexico until Jan. 9, 2006 -- a 40-day stay. And she
had only $911 US with her.

The clincher came when agents examined bottles labelled shampoo and
thought they looked odd. Tests eventually revealed all eight bottles
contained cocaine, with a street value of $106,000.

The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is a supposedly
sophisticated operation that each year intercepts some 1,800 kilos of
cocaine at crossing points into Canada (with a street value in excess
of $100 million).

How much more gets through is unknown. But if the Canedo

Acosta case is anything to go by, it must be substantial. When her
case came to court, all the prosecution had to prove was that:

a) She knew darn well what was in the bottles and smuggled them in
regardless, or

b) Even if she didn't know, she ought to have asked, given the circumstances.

A free flight? A gift of $1,000? All for carrying some "shampoo"
readily available in any Lower Mainland drugstore? Come on!

But, astonishingly, Canedo Acosta got off.

Judge Ronald Fratkin dismissed the case against her in Richmond
Provincial Court because he was forced to accept she might indeed
have been unaware she was smuggling cocaine.

The reason the judge was driven to his reluctant conclusion was a
shoddy, amateurish investigation by customs and immigration officers.

In one hour-long interrogation session, the investigators kept only
minimal written notes.

Crucially, they failed to press Canedo Acosta on whether at any point
she had "suspected anything untoward or possibly illegal."

Botched investigations like this are both a waste of the taxpayers'
money and a signal to other wannabe drug smugglers that Canada is a sieve.

We urge the CBSA to study this case with a view to quickly correcting
its sloppy practices.