POTENT POT PROBLEM ARRIVES TO MINNESOTA

It's called B.C. Bud -- a highly potent form of marijuana that is
hydroponically grown in British Columbia and has fueled a
multimillion-dollar narcotics-smuggling industry in the Pacific Northwest.

And it's headed toward a Minnesota-Canadian border town near
you.

"For five years, the growing and smuggling of B.C. Bud was the No. 1
enforcement priority in the Pacific Northwest, but now the problem has
migrated east -- into border towns in North Dakota and Minnesota and
as far as Detroit," Mike Milne, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and
Border Protection, said Thursday from Seattle.

As the number of drug busts along the Minnesota-Canadian border has
increased in recent months, amounts seized by customs officials have
grown, said Tim Counts, spokesman in the Twin Cities for the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

"Forty pounds of B.C. Bud used to be a large seizure," Counts
said.

"But our Duluth office tells me that officials along the border are
now seizing 200 pounds and up," Counts said.

Sparking new concern among border officials in Minnesota and Canada
are summer's traditional increase of recreational traffic across the
border; the rising value of B.C. Bud, which fetches $3,000 a pound at
the border and retails for $6,000 a pound on the black market, and the
recent arrest in Grand Portage, Minn., of a California man who
allegedly tried to smuggle more than $100,000 in cash, hidden in
vacuum-sealed bags, into Canada.

Martin Sanchez Velasquez, of Compton, Calif., indicted this week, was
arrested May 24 by U.S. Customs Border Protection inspectors after
Canadian inspectors advised that they had denied Velasquez entry into
Canada and he was returning to the U.S. entry point at Grand Portage.

He is charged with two counts of conspiracy to smuggle bulk
cash.

Van's odor noted

When Velasquez, 40, drove a 1994 Dodge Ram van with Minnesota license
plates into the Grand Portage Port of Entry, inspectors noticed the
strong odor of gasoline inside the van.

Gasoline is sometimes used by smugglers to mask the odor of narcotics
being transported in their vehicles, Robert Petrick, Duluth-based
special agent for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
wrote in an affidavit filed with the U.S. attorney's office in
Minneapolis.

Velasquez flew from California to Minnesota May 23, according to court
documents. He was supposed to drive the $101,339 in U.S. currency to
Canada and call others upon arriving in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He
allegedly was to be paid some of the money from the van he was
driving, according to the criminal complaint.

But at Canada's Pigeon Crossing entry point, just across from Grand
Portage, Velasquez may have been confronted by as many as eight
officers, Michel Proulx, spokesman for the Canada Border Services
Agency, said from Ottawa.

"Since Sept. 11, on both sides of the border, we've become more
vigilant when it comes to checking and asking questions," he said.

The usage of highly developed technology for checking border crossings
applies not only to motor vehicles, but to airdrops, kayaks and
backpackers, Milne said.

While authorities have declined to discuss the case, "money laundering
and drug smuggling are very connected," Milne said.

It is not known whether Velasquez has previous involvement with
narcotics smuggling, Milne said. But noting the gasoline smell, Milne
said, "If you have vehicles with hidden compartments, it is
conceivable that narcotics could be transported in those compartments
one way, and money the other way."

Border officials may have been particularly on edge that week. Three
days before Velasquez's arrest, authorities in Warroad, Minn., found
50 pounds of marijuana stuffed inside hockey gear bags in a truck
driven by Gary J. Graboski, an officer with the Canada Border Services
Agency.

Since Velasquez's arrest and release on bail, he has been restricted
to Compton, Calif. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison
and/or a $250,000 fine if convicted.