HUGE COASTLINE TOUGH TO PATROL AS B.C. BUD HEADS NORTH

B.C. bud is heading north to Alaska, often in the dead of night, say
police on the Queen Charlotte Islands.

"We've got a huge coastline that we have to patrol, and the number of
vessels transiting our waters at any given time is huge," Sgt. Andrew
Isles of Masset RCMP said yesterday.

"It's happening more on a routine basis than we probably realize. I
couldn't even put a number on it. Often, we hear about it after the
fact."

Last week, three people were caught smuggling after a high-speed,
pre-dawn boat chase through heavy fog in the waters of the Queen
Charlotte Islands.

The chase ended with police seizing marijuana, magic mushrooms and
about 150 grams of cocaine from a six-metre, Alaska-registered
aluminum vessel.

Three people -- whose names and nationalities are protected by a
court-ordered publication ban -- were arrested at the scene.

The fourth, a Canadian, jumped off the vessel and fled but turned
himself in Sunday.

All face charges of possession and trafficking drugs. The three
arrested at the scene face charges under the Immigration and Refugee
Protection Act.

Alaska sees much less marijuana smuggling from B.C. than Washington
state does, said Alaska lawyer Bill Bryson.

"Up here there are lots of people who grow, so we don't have to import
it from Canada and run the risk," he said.

The four are lucky they weren't caught on the American side, said
Washington state lawyer Jeffrey Steinborn.

"The border's become hysterical since 9/11," he said. "You get some
pretty bizarre situations where you're standing in court with some
poor Canadian kid who's caught smuggling a few pounds over the border,
and the prosecutor and the judge talk to him like he's a terrorist who
just brought in anthrax."