COQUITLAM MAN CAUGHT WITH 260 KG OF 'B.C. BUD' IN U.S.

A Coquitlam man caught by the U.S. border patrol with a dozen hockey bags
of B.C.-grown marijuana near Port Angeles was arrested and charged with
possession of drugs with intent to distribute.

Michael J. Seabrook, 24, was charged with the felony offence in federal
court in Tacoma on Friday, said Emily Langlie of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

He will remain in custody until his detention hearing on Thursday morning,
when a judge will decide whether or not to grant him bail, she said.

It's not known if he will be allowed to return to Canada if he's granted bail.

U.S. border agents on a routine patrol spotted a silver Ford Excursion
leaving a remote beach area near Joyce, a small town 25 kilometres west of
Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, around dawn on Thursday.

With the help of the canine unit from the nearby Lower Elwha tribal police,
drug-sniffing dogs were alerted to drugs in the vehicle while it was
stopped at a roadside convenience store.

Police obtained a search warrant and inside the SUV they found 260
kilograms of "B.C. bud" valued at $4.5 million.

"It's substantial," said Joseph Giuliano of U.S. Customs in Blaine. "It's
more than three times bigger than the average drug bust of about [80 kg]."

The vehicle had been rented in Port Angeles by someone with a different
name and Giuliano said there are likely others involved.

He said it's likely the drugs were boated over the Juan de Fuca Strait from
the south end of Vancouver Island, about an hour's ferry ride away, in a
Zodiac or other small boat, a smuggling option that's become more popular.

Seabrook's father, Norman Seabrook, reached at his Coquitlam home, said,
"I'm totally surprised" at the charge.

In a similar case, three Lower Mainland men, all in their 20s, were charged
with smuggling 900 kg of "B.C. bud" into the U.S. in February after
snowmobilers tripped a U.S. border-patrol motion-detector late at night
near the B.C.-Idaho border.

They remain in jail with bail set at $1.2 million at least until their
trial date on July 26. If convicted, the trio face minimum sentences of
five years in jail and fines of $15,000.

Increased attempts to smuggle drugs over the U.S.-Canada border,
particularly in the Pacific Northwest, has forced the U.S. to hike the
number of surveillance airplanes to more regularly monitor the 6,500-km border.

The surveillance is similar to that used on the U.S.-Mexican border to
thwart drug smuggling and will patrol for drugs, explosives and terrorists
smuggling.

The plans come amid reports that al-Qaida is determined to launch a U.S.
attack in the next few months, although U.S. intelligence has not said where.