SASK. BECOMING COMMON CHOICE FOR SMUGGLERS

(CNS) Saskatchewan is an increasingly common choice for drug smugglers
attempting to move contraband across the border into the United States,
according to an RCMP intelligence report on drugs in the country.

The national force's Drug Situation in Canada report for 2004 says
increased vigilance against marijuana smuggling along the British
Columbia-Washington border has pushed the activity eastward into Alberta
and Saskatchewan before being smuggled across the border into the United
States.

The activity is sometimes seen as far east as Manitoba and Ontario, the
report said.

Saskatchewan was also noted as home to some of the 40 clandestine
methamphetamine laboratories discovered across the country in 2004.

The greatest number of laboratory seizures were reported in the B.C.
region, followed by Alberta and Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec and Saskatchewan.

Overall, the RCMP report found Canada is becoming a major exporter of
narcotics to Japan, and this country's links with Colombian drug cartels
are multiplying.

Canada now ranks second as a source of methamphetamine seized in Japan (44
kilograms), after having no real presence there only two years ago, the
document concluded.

Canada also placed third in ecstasy shipments discovered, with 50,000
tablets, and accounted for 10 per cent of all marijuana seized (60 kg).

"Because of the large amount of marijuana from Canada in 2004 and the fact
that couriers are Canadian and Japanese, Japanese authorities believe
criminal syndicates are involved," reads the report, completed in September.

Authorities believe organized crime groups in both countries are working
together to create "a supply and demand relationship" in Japan.

Compared with the amount of cocaine moving between Canada and Colombia,
however, the numbers in Asia appear minuscule.

"Major operations concluded in 2004 brought to light relationships between
Canadian organized crime elements and Colombian cartels, and conspiracies
to import multi-hundred kilogram shipments of cocaine to Canada on a
regular basis," the report says.

While Caribbean islands such as Trinidad, Haiti and Jamaica are the most
common transit points, the amount of cocaine seized at the land border
entering British Columbia doubled last year.

Most of the seizures are made on small, private sailboats, however,
including one 542-kilogram shipment stopped in Nova Scotia, and another
750-kilogram stash destined for Canada that was intercepted off the coast
of Puerto Rico.

"In general, traffickers try to unload their shipments in isolated areas
along the Canadian coast in order to avoid inspection at ports of entry,"
the report says.

"Marijuana production" continues to tax law-enforcement resources across
the country, the RCMP points out, citing the more than 1.5-million plants
and 33,000 kilograms in bulk pot seized coast to coast.

The plant total is the highest recorded in the report's statistics, which
go back 10 years.

The Mounties also address the issue of drug trafficking and terrorism,
saying there is no evidence the two are linked in Canada.