RCMP, CUSTOMS WERE 'BARELY ON SPEAKING TERMS'

Agencies Refused To Share Intelligence About Drug Smuggling: Documents

Relations between Canada Customs and the RCMP at the Port of Vancouver were
so bad in the late 1990s that the two agencies at times delayed sharing
information with each other about drug smuggling, according to an internal
government report obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

Earlier this month, a Senate committee warned the Vancouver port is riddled
with crime, infiltrated by motorcycle gangs, Asian triads, Russian
gangsters and "narco-terrorists" who use the proceeds of drug sales to
finance terrorism.

The Senators said more resources and better technology are needed to combat
the growing influence of organized crime.

But an internal Canada Customs report obtained by The Sun under Access to
Information legislation shows the two agencies responsible for fighting
drug smuggling at Vancouver's port were barely on speaking terms just three
and a half years ago.

The situation became so bad that one police officer told investigators "the
level of trust between police and Customs is non-existent."

Canada Customs launched an internal investigation in September 1998 after
receiving a complaint from the RCMP that a senior Customs officer at the
port delayed passing on information to the Mounties that he knew was
relevant to an ongoing drug investigation.

Even though the officer knew the RCMP was the lead agency on the case, he
allegedly passed on the information instead to a Vancouver police officer
assigned to the former Coordinated Law Enforcement Unit (CLEU).

A report prepared by Customs investigators in November 1998 concluded that
the officer in question "did deliberately delay informing the RCMP of
sensitive intelligence information."

It also found the officer in question "passed on sensitive investigation
intelligence utilizing a non-secure means of communication (cellular
telephone) thus creating the potential for unauthorized interception of
that sensitive information."

Canada Customs won't say what, if any, disciplinary action was taken
against the officer -- whose name was deleted from the copy of the report
provided to The Sun -- saying it does not comment on personnel matters.

In the course of its investigation, Canada Customs interviewed more than a
dozen RCMP and Customs officers and uncovered a deep conflict between the
two agencies. The investigators heard several complaints, including:

* In the fall of 1997, Customs put two of its officers at a location at the
port "in spite of the fact that they had been advised that the location was
under police surveillance." According to one RCMP officer: "This could only
be interpreted as interference."

* Customs was often slow to alert the RCMP to information which might
assist them in an investigation. Often, by the time the RCMP was notified,
it was too late for it to do anything about it.

* Information provided to Customs by the RCMP was often passed on to U.S.
Customs, "sometimes jeopardizing ongoing RCMP investigations."

* Sensitive information about police investigations had been widely
distributed to Customs staff, even those in branches like tax collection
that have nothing to do with drug enforcement.

Both the RCMP and Canada Customs said this week the problems at the ports
have been resolved and the agencies are now working well together.

According to one RCMP officer interviewed by Customs investigators,
"basically the RCMP disagree with the philosophy used by Customs in their
enforcement at the waterfront."

The disagreement appears to centre around one key issue.

While Customs sees its mandate as stopping any drug shipment from getting
into the country, police often want to let a known drug shipment through so
they can put it under surveillance and see where it is delivered -- what is
known as a "controlled delivery."

"Customs appears to be interested only in effecting seizures," one officer
with CLEU told the Customs investigators. "They are oriented towards
building up statistics rather than in the investigative aspects related to
drug smuggling."

Added the same officer: "Customs are not concerned with the protection of
informants. The level of trust between police and Customs is non-existent.
Customs does not support RCMP investigations."

Another RCMP officer complained that Customs did not keep police informed
about activity at the ports that might assist them in ongoing investigations.

"There are times when the RCMP are not provided information by Customs
quickly enough to allow them to set up controlled deliveries or initiate
other investigative techniques," the report quotes the officer as saying.
"Some of the delays are quite unreasonable in length."

In one of the most blatant examples of the level of animosity between
police and Customs, one RCMP officer told the Customs investigators of an
incident in which he provided a sensitive police operational plan to a
Customs superintendent at the Vancouver port "along with strict
instructions that the plan must not be copied."

When the RCMP officer returned a few hours later, he saw three Customs
officers reading a photocopied version of the plan.

When the officer asked why the plan had been copied, the Customs
superintendent replied "that he worried too much."

"When [the RCMP officer], obviously upset, repeated his question concerning
the copying of the plan, the Superintendent responded with words to the
effect of 'Get the f--- out of my office.' "

The incident, according to the report, left the officer "convinced that he
could not share sensitive information" with Customs.

The same RCMP officer told investigators of another incident in which
police asked Customs if they could assist the police in conducting
surveillance at the port.

The Customs officer's "reply to the RCMP request was words to the effect
that, 'Customs personnel aren't trained to sit in vans and pee into bottles.' "

The names of the officers involved in those two incidents were deleted,
along with several other sections of the report, before it was released to
The Sun.

The only person interviewed by the investigators whose name was not deleted
from the report is Blake Delgaty, regional director of Customs for the
Pacific Region.

Delgaty, who still heads the region, told investigators he was not aware of
many of the alleged incidents that took place at the port, but added:
"There have been some disagreements between Customs and the RCMP in matters
related to enforcement at the waterfront. The RCMP are not always happy
with the actions of Customs and vice-versa."

The report notes that Customs and the RCMP do not appear to have such
conflicts at other locations where they work together.

"The relationship between the RCMP and Customs at VIA [Vancouver
International Airport] and the land border crossing is good and works
well," one RCMP officer told investigators. "The main problem exists within
the waterfront operations and within the intelligence community."

That officer said the problems at the port were in large part due to
"personality conflicts" between individual officers with the two agencies.

While the internal investigation was launched by Customs to investigate the
allegations against one officer, the report's authors found much deeper
issues "which required the attention of Revenue Canada management."

One, they said, was "the questionable working relationship" between Customs
and the RCMP.

"It is obvious that such confrontational situations as those presently
occurring between the RCMP Vancouver Drug Operations Section and the
Customs Marine Operations Section can only serve to worsen what is already
a troubled relationship," the report found.

Another major problem, the report said, is the "apparent inability" of
Customs officers at the port "to ensure that adequate levels of protection
be afforded the sensitive intelligence received by them."

One example of this problem, the report states, were so-called "Flash
Reports," regular updates on enforcement action at the port that Canada
Customs distributes widely to its staff.

Too often, investigators found, those reports contained information that
should have been kept under wraps.

"While the concept of sharing enforcement-related information within the
Customs group may be a commendable one, the method used to disseminate the
information has, in itself, created a major security concern," the report
states. "Ideally, providing information related to current smuggling
trends, for example, would allow Customs personnel to be better equipped to
interdict contraband. However, the danger occurs when the information
disseminated includes such sensitive material as informant information
[and] information related to the RCMP's intentions in the conduct of their
ongoing investigations."

Investigators found the flash reports were also distributed to Customs
staff members who had nothing to do with enforcement.

"The Need to Know Principle must be considered in determining to whom such
information is made available," the report states. "Managers of tax related
functions, for example, have no requirement to know the methods of
concealment being utilized by criminals."

In an interview Thursday, Delgaty downplayed the seriousness of the rift
between the RCMP and Customs.

"It's a pretty complex relationship," he said. "And any complex
relationship has issues that crop up from time to time."

He added that the two agencies work well together now.

"Right now, all over the province, the relationship is excellent," he said.
"It's gotten better since then, definitely."

Delgaty wouldn't comment on specific measures taken since 1998, but said
he's confident intelligence information is no longer passed on to those
without proper security clearance.

"Presently, I'm satisfied that sensitive information goes only where it
needs to go," he said.

Superintendent Carl Busson, head of drug enforcement for the RCMP in B.C.,
agreed problems between the two agencies have been resolved.

"Certainly there were problems back then," he said. "[But] we seem to be
rolling along fine down there now. There's no problem with information
sharing between Customs and ourselves."

He added there has been a significant turnover in staff at the port over
the past three years, so many of the personality conflicts that were a
problem in 1998 are no longer an issue.

Busson said it's hard to know exactly what impact the disputes in the late
1990s had on trying to stop the flow of drugs into the province.

"Certainly, you'd have to say that it would have a negative impact and it
would be detrimental," he said. "[But] to what extent, I'm not sure.
Because we don't know what, if anything, we missed by not sharing information."