DEMAND FOR POTENT POT DRIVES SMUGGLERS TO RISK BORDER PATROL

Heightened Security Increased Risks. Profit Motive Is Strong, But U.S.
Prosecutors Have Dozens Of Cases Of Quebecers Busted

The U.S. appetite for "Quebec gold," high-grade hydroponic marijuana, is so
strong that smugglers are willing run the risks presented by heightened
border security, law enforcement officials said yesterday.

Neither increased border surveillance nor the stiff prison terms meted out
by U.S. courts seem to deter Quebecers from running, driving or flying the
potent, illicit weed across the border, said RCMP Sgt. Norman Houle of the
Integrated Border Enforcement Team.

"It's (just) been harder for the smugglers over the 11/2 years we've been
here," said Houle, stressing that the team's No. 1 priority is national
security in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United
States.

Illustrating Houle's point about the higher hoop for smugglers is the
arrest Friday of a Montrealer after a low-flying helicopter was spotted
dropping bales of marijuana to him along a snowmobile trail near the town
of Lowell, Vt.

Liborio Sciascia, 33, was arrested after police said they found several
hundred pounds of marijuana in his vehicle.

They also charged him with conspiracy to import marijuana, alleging that he
was involved in the smuggling of 1,300 pounds of marijuana from Canada into
New York state in March 2002.

Sciascia, of St. L?onard, also faces weapons and cocaine trafficking
charges in Quebec. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand
trial in October in Montreal. He has chosen to be tried by a judge alone.

Friday's drop was the first known case of a helicopter being used to ferry
drugs but it's not the first instance of organized criminal groups
smuggling marijuana into Vermont or New York State, Canadian and U.S.
officials said.

David Kirby, a U.S. attorney in the District of Vermont, said his office
has five to 10 current cases involving individuals trying to walk marijuana
across the border or truckers trying to conceal it in their vehicles.

In "a number of these ventures," but not all, it is alleged that the Hells
Angels are involved, Kirby said.

Houle said that last year, officials at two border crossings arrested 30
truckers found smuggling marijuana from Quebec into the United States. This
year, 10 truckers have been arrested.

Apparently Quebec smugglers "can't get enough marijuana to fill the
American demand," said Houle, recalling a recent operation in which one
gang of marijuana producers had to obtain some elsewhere to fill orders.

Sgt. Mark Pearson of the RCMP in Kingston, Ont., said smugglers have a
strong profit motive. A pound of Quebec's hydroponically grown marijuana
nets $3,000 to $3,500 wholesale in Quebec but jumps to $5,600 Canadian in
New York State and $7,000 in California.

The law of supply and demand might indicate that Canadian prices would drop
if the market was flooded because the borders were closed tight. Yet no law
official canvassed yesterday noted a drop in local prices.