SUSPECTED SMUGGLER IN CROSS-BORDER AIR CHASE

A Lower Mainland pilot suspected of trafficking B.C. bud into the
United States is facing criminal charges in his home province after
authorities on both sides of the border were led on an air chase from
Washington state to the Sunshine Coast.

The international incident began about 2 p.m. Wednesday. That's when
authorities with the Bellingham Air and Marine Branch of U.S. Customs
and Immigration first spotted a plane flying suspiciously low towards
the Arlington airport in Skagit County, Wash.

"That's usually the profile of a smuggling aircraft -- to fly low, fly
through the valleys, fly where they won't be detected by radar," said
Mike Milne, U.S. customs spokesman. "They're not seen by regular
flight pattern areas, which is what raised our suspicions, so that's
why we followed it."

Milne said U.S. pilots with the newly formed Bellingham Air and Marine
Branch followed the plane -- a privately owned fixed-wing aircraft,
likely a Cessna -- to Arlington, where it taxied to a remote area of
the airport.

"We came in behind it. We were going to stop it and perform an
inspection on it and do a field interview with the pilot, but he
noticed our plane coming up on him and he basically revved it up and
took off and ran across the grass area there and took off on the
tarmac," Milne said.

Milne said the plane missed the U.S. customs aircraft by only a few
feet before taking off. American authorities remained in pursuit.

As the suspect plane headed north, the U.S. pilots were granted
special permission to chase it into Canadian airspace, based on a
protocol agreement between the two nations, while RCMP with the
border-integrity unit scrambled its own aircraft.

According to RCMP Const. Randy Wong, the suspect plane initially
headed towards the Stave Lake/Mission area, then flew over Squamish
and, finally, the Sechelt area on the Sunshine Coast.

Before landing at the Sechelt airport, Wong said RCMP pilots observed
several bags, believed to contain marijuana, thrown from the plane.
The pilot was later arrested by Sechelt RCMP.

Wong said the pilot is "known" to police in connection with alleged
marijuana-smuggling activity. An investigation into the incident is
continuing on both sides of the border. Wong said police will try to
find the bags that were thrown from the plane during the chase.