AGENTS SEE THROUGH SMUGGLING ATTEMPT

Seizure Of Cocaine Sets A Record

More than a week after Canada Customs agents seized a record 82
kilograms of cocaine worth $10.3 million from a tractor-trailer at the
Ambassador Bridge, charges have yet to be laid and no suspects are in
custody.

"The investigation is ongoing," said Canada Border Services Agency
spokesman Danny Yen. "Charges are pending."

Agents made the seizure about 1:15 a.m. July 19, when a gamma ray
scanning system noticed an anomaly in the truck's cargo of mixed
produce from California.

A more detailed examination of the cargo revealed cocaine concealed in
six of the 1,330 cases of produce, including lettuce.

Citing the integrity of the investigation, Yen said he could not
comment on details of the incident, such as where the truck was from
and where it was going.

"We can't compromise our investigation," Yen said.

He said the bust represented the largest cocaine seizure at the
Windsor border and in southwestern Ontario. He credited a new mobile
scanning system called Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System (VACIS) for
finding the stash.

"It's questionable if we would have intercepted the drugs without
VACIS," Yen said.

"It allows officers to see what the human eye cannot."

The X-ray-like system, which was implemented in 2003, scans vehicles
and provides images of areas that may be inaccessible to customs
officers or require labour-intensive examination.

It is a frame-like device that surrounds the truck on both sides and
on top and is moved down the length of the vehicle, quickly recording
images through as much as 15 centimetres of steel.

Without VACIS, agents would have to inspect the truck by
hand.

"It can be very time-consuming," Yen said.

"It would take a lot of officers a lot of time to go through the whole
truckload."

The previous largest cocaine seizure at the border in Windsor was 12
kilograms in March 2003.

The previous largest in southwestern Ontario was 60 kilograms at the
Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia in December 2001.

"This is the largest cocaine seizure for Windsor-St. Clair ever," Yen
said.

The scanning system has already helped agents find two caches of
liquor worth $278,000 US and also helped them foil a human smuggling
operation.

The device has also found contraband inside a truck's air dam, the
wedge-shaped protrusion on the roof of a tractor-trailer cab.

Yen lauded the work of the customs agents who detected something that
led them to do a VACIS scan of the vehicle.

"Our officers identified the truck as one we should take a closer look
at," said Yen, refusing to elaborate on what the agents saw to send
the truck to VACIS.