BORDER GUARDS AWASH IN SEA OF GREEN

Marijuana Smuggling: U.S. Officials Blow Budget Stopping Flow Of Drugs From
Canada

B.C. drug smugglers are breaking the law -- and the bank -- when they sneak
across the border.

An increase in seizures is putting enormous strain on Washington county law
enforcement and local officials say they've had enough.

"It's become an enormous problem, and we're not getting enough help from
the federal government," says Whatcom County councillor Barbara Brenner.

In the past six years, she says the county has become increasingly
frustrated with Canadian smugglers.

"Every agency is feeling the pressure. Our criminal justice system eats up
most of the money we have in our budget and there's less money for other
services," Brenner says.

The county's law-and-justice budget will top $34 million US in 2005, up
from $28 million in 2001. In the sheriff's drug task force alone, spending
jumped from $146,000 in 2001 to $466,376 in 2005.

Whatcom County deputy executive Dewey Desler says that since the terrorist
attacks of 2001, the number of federal agents at the border has grown, and
with that, drug arrests have, too.

Now, Desler says, the county ends up handling about 85 per cent of all
cases instigated by federal border patrols in its local courts.

"Our local communities are really struggling under the impact of that. We
have a horribly overcrowded jail," he says, noting that the Whatcom County
jail has room for 148 but often houses up to 270.

The county is responsible for law and justice spending for the towns of
Bellingham, Blaine, Lynden, Sumas and others. It's been pleading with
Congress for money to deal with the influx, but received less than $1
million for the coming year.

Joseph Giuliano, assistant Chief of U.S. Border Patrol operations in
Blaine, says Canada-U.S. drug trafficking in the area has grown.

"We certainly [intercept]more drugs now than we did in the past," Giuliano
says. "The marijuana number is going up year by year."

In the 2002 fiscal year, U.S. officers along the B.C.-Whatcom County border
seized 1,348 kilograms of marijuana from Canada. In 2003, they intercepted
1,698 kg; in 2004 2,842 kg.

Already in 2005, officers have confiscated 1,184 kg, with the busy summer
season months away.

And the cases keep coming.

In just the last week, U.S. border officers made two big busts.

On Wednesday, officers snagged a 24-year-old Vancouver man driving a stolen
truck over the border at Sumas, concealing 345 kg of "B.C. bud" in 13
hockey bags.

The suspect drove his pickup off the road, got stuck in a ditch and fled on
foot before he was caught. The haul was worth more than $3.8 million.

He was turned over to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and will face
prosecution for drug and immigration charges.

On Tuesday, 57-year-old Yue Kai Lee of Vancouver was arrested for allegedly
trying to smuggle 5.6 kg of ecstasy -- enough for 20,300 pills -- over the
border at Blaine inside a spare tire. Lee was arrested and held on $100,000
bail.

Despite rising costs, Giuliano balks at the idea of compensation from
Canada for the pressure our smugglers put on their system.

"By the same token, should we be compensating Canada because of the cocaine
that comes through the United States and ends up there? Or the guns that
are illicitly conveyed from the U.S. to Canada? This is truly a
bi-directional border."

U.S. Has Stiff Sentences For Drug Runners

Want a reason not to run drugs across the border?

- - A person caught with more than 100 kilograms of marijuana in the U.S.
faces a minimum of five years in prison.

- - With 1,000 kg, the penalty jumps to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10
years without parole.

- - Canadians can ask to be transferred to a Canadian prison to serve their
sentence but can serve an average of two years in U.S. prison before the
transfer is granted.