$300,000 U.S. WORTH OF POT SEIZED BY U.S. BORDER PATROL

And that's only since Monday, say the Blaine, Wash., agents

U.S. Border Patrol agents at Blaine, Wash., have seized $300,000 US
worth of B.C. pot since Monday.

And since last October, more than $10 million in dope has been seized
along the 196 kilometres of border patrolled by the Blaine office,
said assistant border patrol chief Joseph Giuliano.

Giuliano said two intruders were detected by motion sensors, and seen
by video-surveillance cameras, crossing the border in bush 1.6 km west
of the Aldergrove-Lynden crossing at about 3:30 a.m. Monday.

Border patrol agents caught a 24-year-old Surrey man with 46 pounds of
marijuana in a hockey bag. The other smuggler escaped back into Canada
and is being sought by the RCMP.

Giuliano said the marijuana is worth about $3,500 US per pound at the
retail level and the haul was worth about $162,000.

About 4:35 a.m. yesterday, a man again triggered the intrusion systems
west of Lynden. He was chased and arrested with three hockey bags
containing 34 pounds of pot with a street value of $120,000.

The 28-year-old is a Korean-born U.S. citizen who lives in
Vancouver.

"So far in this fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1 and ends on Sept. 30,
we have 2,927 pounds of marijuana seized in a total of 16 smuggling
events and that works out to around $10 million [US] worth," said Giuliano.

In the previous year, authorities seized a total of about 3,700 pounds
of marijuana. Giuliano expects this year's total to reach 5,000 pounds.

"I have a total of 122 miles of land border [in the Blaine sector] and
I have 146 sensors -- they are set off by several means -- motion,
infrared, things like that," he said. The sensors are in addition to
32 day- and night-vision cameras along 71 km of the border.

The drug trade goes both ways, he said. U.S. border authorities have
intercepted 266 pounds of cocaine headed for Canada so far this year.

"As much as we hate to admit it we are a pipeline country for Canada,"
he said.