CROSS-BORDER B.C. BUD TRADE EASY

Saanich police pulled $120,000 worth of marijuana out of a kayak that washed
up on Ten Mile Point on Tuesday.

That's $120,000 down, and $9.2 billion to go.

Which is the value of the marijuana Forbes magazine says B.C. may generate
annually, help making dope "Canada's most valuable agricultural product --
bigger than wheat, cattle or timber."

The cover story in this week's edition of the influential American business
publication reported the Canadian marijuana trade to be worth anywhere from
$4 billion US nationwide to $7 billion US in this province alone, depending
on whom you believe.

Since drug smugglers don't pay a lot of income tax, it's impossible to
quantify any figures, but Canadian police have long talked about a billion
dollars worth of B.C. Bud being shipped south each year. (Who says we can't
compete in the global economy? Somebody phone the Fraser Institute with the
news.)

This has not, of course, escaped the attention of American authorities. The
U.S Border Patrol has tripled its number of agents in western Washington in
the last two years, and the U.S. Coast Guard has an anti-drug team.

Still, the waters separating Vancouver Island and Washington are not
difficult to cross undetected. It's only 10 kilometres from Victoria to San
Juan Island. Marijuana goes south and cocaine, guns and money flow north.

We have plenty of secluded spots where vessels can pull in. It was in
February 2001, that the U.S. Coast Guard picked off the Western Wind, a
Victoria tuna boat, near the entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait as it headed
home with $300 million worth of cocaine from Colombia. The boat probably
would have made it, too, had authorities not been tipped that it was coming.

(The story of the Western Wind is a sad one. Police thought they had a shot
at finally making a dent in B.C.'s Hells Angels, but at least two
witness-protection deals involving crew members were scuppered by a senior
Mountie in Vancouver. The case became such a mess that no one was charged
with anything. Two and a half tonnes of cocaine -- more than Canadian police
seize in an entire year -- and nobody goes to prison. Terrific.)

This week's seizure of kayak-borne dope is "not unprecedented," said Joe
Giuliano, assistant chief patrol agent for the Blaine Border Patrol, which
covers western Washington.

Smuggling is a constant game of cat and mouse, says Giuliano. The
authorities try to anticipate the next move of organized crime. The
smugglers, who invest heavily in counter-surveillance and counter-technology
measures, probe for weak spots in the coverage.

The Americans have had success with a device that X-rays commercial
vehicles, which remain -- despite the sexiness of kayaks, surfboards and
low-flying planes that disappear under the radar -- the dependable workhorse
(or is that mule?) of the drug trade. "Suddenly we're seeing thousand-pound
seizures fairly regularly."

But Giuliano expects the smugglers will adapt. In any case, it's impossible
to thoroughly screen every truck that trundles through the checkpoint at
Blaine, the busiest border crossing west of Detroit.

And all the technological wizardry in the world can't make up for the fact
that we have long stretches of open border guarded by little more than
intermittent observation and a Welcome mat. Near Aldergrove, for example, a
Canadian road named Zero Avenue parallels Boundary Road in the U.S., just
spitting distance across a ditch that divides the two countries. A quick
crank of the steering wheel and you're on the other side.

A risky move, but potentially lucrative. "British Columbia marijuana has
roughly 10 times the value of the Mexican marijuana," says Giuliano. Police
believe between 5,000 and 15,000 indoor grow ops have blossomed in the Lower
Mainland alone.

Still, Giuliano is not dismayed. Morale has improved since the U.S. agents
who work the border crossings began working more closely with those who
patrol the spaces between, he says.

Drug seizures keep rising.

But it's impossible to say whether increased seizures stem from higher
enforcement or simply reflect the massive trade in what Forbes says is
Canada's largest agricultural product.