COKE-LOADED CAR RUNS BORDER

RCMP Track Quesnel Man With 149 Kg Of Cocaine

A 67-year-old man faces drug charges after a rented car with a trunk
full of cocaine fled from U.S. Customs officials and ran the border at
176th Street.

The man was arrested at about 8 p.m. Sunday at 264th Street and 20th
Avenue in Langley after Mounties caught up with him. About 149
kilograms of packaged cocaine were seized from the trunk of his car.

Police said the incident began late Sunday afternoon when U.S. Customs
officials saw some sort of exchange between two parties in Bellingham.
The customs officers followed one vehicle involved in the exchange.

"He was getting close to the border [at 176th Street]," Langley RCMP
Cpl. Dave Carr said yesterday. "They stop him and they're looking at
his ID and he bolts and blasts through the Pacific border crossing."

The man was also being watched by U.S. Customs officials in a
fixed-wing aircraft. The plane followed him into Surrey after the
Chrysler Sebring jumped a median and a curb and plowed across a lawn
into Canada.

"He heads into Surrey and, luckily, they have an eye-in-the-sky and
they are tracking him," Carr said. "Of course, they are not familiar
with the area so they are trying to use landmarks and we're trying to
co-ordinate where this person is.

"Our dispatch is relaying the message to our members and they come
across him on 264th Street at 20th Avenue."

Police described the seizure of cocaine as "significant" in size and
worth millions.

"That's a lot of cocaine -- and it takes an organized crime outfit to
be able to fund and move that," Carr said.

"This is another case of how international policing agencies are
co-operating to try and clamp down on drug smuggling and the
importation of this type of drug."

Robert Norton Allaire of Quesnel is charged with importing a
controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking. He
made his first appearance in Surrey Provincial Court yesterday.