SMUGGLERS ARE MASTERS OF INVENTION

A hockey bag thrown into a raspberry field may some day be frowned upon by
drug smugglers for being too obvious.

As U.S. border protection agencies improve their smuggling savvy, illegal
importers have pursued more creative ways to sneak drugs past them.

Marijuana stashed in various semi truck shipments has accounted for some of
the largest busts by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Whatcom County
land ports.

Here's a look at some of the more inventive methods drug smugglers have
used in the past few years and some of the biggest marijuana seizures of 2004:

. Jan. 16, 2002, 1,400 pounds of potent B.C. Bud in a beer delivery truck.
Inspectors opened the back of the truck and were startled by the strong
smell of marijuana that wafted out. They found 34 large hockey bags mingled
with a shipment of beer bottles.

n January 2003, 166 pounds of marijuana and $180,000 in cash stashed in a
semi trailer carrying live bears across the border at the Pacific Highway
truck crossing in Blaine.

A drug-sniffing dog alerted inspectors to the stash that was packaged in
vacuum-sealed bags and stuffed into the trailer frame and false walls of
the bears' wooden den.

May 2003, 12 pallets of B.C. Bud, weighing 1,309 pounds, hidden within a
shipment of pine shavings. The packer had stuffed plastic bags of marijuana
into the shavings and stacked them in the center row of the semi.

September 2003, 2,804 pounds of marijuana in a semi-load of compressed
bails of rags. Bags of marijuana were packed into boxes, surrounded with
the rags, cinched down and wrapped up.

September 2003, a tip led officers to 1,893 pounds of marijuana packed into
55-gallon drums of frozen raspberry puree.

May 2004, inspectors noticed an "irregularity" in the bed of a pickup truck
at a Blaine border crossing. They removed the rear bumper and cut into the
pickup bed where they found a compartment holding about 408 pounds of
marijuana.

The same weekend, inspectors found 101,704 tablets of Ecstasy in a box that
was welded into the engine compartment.

Sept. 9, 2004, a patrolling officer noticed someone who appeared to be
scouting for officers on the U.S. side of the border west of Sumas. The
person walked back into Canada and soon after drove a pickup into the U.S.
Surprised by the patrolling officer, the driver tried to make a U-turn and
drive back into Canada, but the pickup got stuck in the mud, so the driver
got out and ran, evading capture.

The would-be smuggler had left 681 pounds of B.C. Bud, again in hockey
bags, in the truck bed.

Getting caught importing drugs carries serious penalties.

Former Customs and Border Protection Officer Cory W. Whitfield is facing
five to 40 years in federal prison for attempting to deliver 536 pounds of
B.C. Bud across the border north of Lynden on Sept. 13, and successfully
delivering the drug on another occasion.