DRUG LORDS LIKE HALIFAX PORT - COP

Port Gives Smugglers Easier Access To United States - Narcotics Officer

Colombia's drug cartels use Halifax to import cocaine and heroine because
it 's closer than California and easier to enter than U.S. ports, says the
president of North America's Anti-Smuggling Investigators Association.

"It's closer to come to Halifax than it is to get to San Diego," said
Lieut. Mark Petska, the group's president and a narcotics officer with the
Virginia State Police.

"So that's why they like it; they can come into Canada with containers and
then they can slip them right across the border."

Colombians smugglers are hiding most of their contraband in seemingly
innocent shipping containers, he said.

"The United States Coast Guard pretty much hammers them around Florida and
along the east coast," Petska said. "So they can go out further, make a
wider swing and then come in through Canada."

About 150 cops, customs officers, military investigators and drug agents
from both sides of the Canada-U.S. border are attending a five-day
conference in Halifax behind closed doors. It began yesterday.

While Roy Jamieson, of Canada Customs and Revenue, admits there is "a
perception in some circles" that Halifax may be an easy target for drug
smugglers, he hopes to convince people at this week's conference that just
isn't true.

"Our track record is good," Jamieson said, adding Halifax customs agents
have a "pretty good chance" of nabbing drugs coming through the port.

Right now, about 50 customs officers in Halifax inspect just three per cent
of the 500,000 containers that land here every year. About 20 per cent of
those containers move on to the United States by rail or truck.

"I think we're missing the boat on containers," Petska said. "There's no
way you can check them all. You just have to hope you get good intelligence
information and get lucky."

Cocaine isn't the only drug Colombians are smuggling, said the 29-year
veteran U.S. cop.

"It's wide open," he said. "Heroine, hashish -- the Colombians are big into
producing now."

Cocaine, heroine and ecstasy are the most common drugs smuggled into
Halifax, said Sgt. Cy Chaytor, the RCMP's liason in Halifax with the
military and Canada Customs.

"There seems to be a shift now," Chaytor said. "We used to seize drugs by
the tonne."

But police now find drug smugglers are bringing in smaller quantities more
often, he said. "So we get one and they got 10 through," Chaytor said.