B.C. POT FINANCING AFGHAN GUNS, TOP COP SAYS

VANCOUVER -- British Columbia marijuana is financing guns being used by
Afghan rebels, the province's top cop said Friday.

"We have just lost a soldier in Afghanistan," B.C. Solicitor General Rich
Coleman said in a speech Friday to the Vancouver Board of Trade. "When we
first arrived in Afghanistan, the weapons that were shipped to (rebel)
soldiers in Afghanistan, a lot of it could be traced to the marijuana drug
trade in British Columbia."

Weapons used in Afghanistan against Canadian soldiers were tracked and the
trail led back to the sale of B.C. marijuana, he said.

Asked later by reporters how he knew this, Coleman said he has been briefed
through organized crime agencies and police in the province.

"I can tell you that's the information I've been given," he said. "I'm not
going to give you police sources, but I can tell you we can track the
pattern of crime internationally."

Through information provided by other police jurisdictions, including those
in the United States and other countries, Coleman said he has been told the
sale of B.C. marijuana has financed weapons that are shipped overseas.

"It's an unfortunate fact that we have an active illegal gun trade in
Vancouver and the basis for paying all that type of illegal crime starts
with marijuana grow ops."

The transport of B.C. marijuana across the border pays for ecstasy, sex
trade workers and crack cocaine, he said.

"You know what else it pays for? A very active illegal gun trade in British
Columbia in the exportation and importation of guns."

The movement of marijuana into the U.S. has upset American officials so
much that they have tightened the border with Canada, Coleman said.

Coleman later clarified he did not mean to imply that the weapon that
killed Cpl. Jamie Murphy of Conception Harbour, Nfld., in Afghanistan this
week was purchased by proceeds from B.C. marijuana.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. John Ward said Friday that police have known the
marijuana proceeds are being used to finance other illegal activities.

"It is a concern for us and it's an issue we need to deal with," Ward said.

Ward said police know that marijuana is being used to barter for other
illegal commodities once dealers transport them across the border.

The police say marijuana moving from B.C. is part of a vast, lucrative
bartering system by organized crime groups stretching from North American
to Central America and potentially overseas.

The goods being traded include marijuana for cash or for materials to set
up crystal methamphetamine labs. Guns are also regularly traded.

U.S. Customs spokesman Mike Milne said American authorities have not been
able to track a direct link between marijuana and the shipment of weapons
to Afghanistan.