DRIFTING BOAT FOUND PACKED WITH POT

An unoccupied Canadian sailboat discovered adrift near Port Townsend in
Washington state this week turned out to have close to 180 kilograms of
marijuana on board.

The find by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics
Enforcement Team comes on the heels of another seizure of so-called "B.C.
bud" from a boat that left Vancouver Island waters a few days earlier.

That vessel was tracked from the air by American officials acting on an
RCMP tip. Authorities moved in when the boat reached landfall in Washington
and arrested a 54-year-old U.S. citizen.

In the most recent case, a six-metre sailboat had drifted into shipping
lanes when it was reported by a Washington State Ferry captain.

The boat was unmarked, but a search turned up evidence indicating it was
from Canada, the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team said in a
news release.

Seizures of B.C.-grown marijuana in western Washington are up about 50 per
cent this fiscal year, which ends in a month. The total seized is more than
2,500 kilograms.