O CANNABIS!

Border Agents Say They Can't Stem The Tide Of Potent 'B.C. Bud' Into The
United States From Canada

BLAINE - It comes concealed in heat-proof bags stowed on engines under the
hoods of cars. It comes hidden in plastic pipes stashed in water or in the
propane tanks of recreational vehicles.

It has been found in a sea kayak that crossed the Strait of Georgia to land
on Lopez Island in the San Juans, and it has been tossed - by a smuggler's
ironic error - into the trunk of a U.S. Border Patrol officer's car along a
lonely road near the berry fields east of this Whatcom County border town.

Smuggling of "B.C. Bud," a potent form of marijuana bred and grown in
British Columbia, has surged from a trickle to a torrent the past four
years, and law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border have found
it nearly impossible to stem the flood.

Seizures and arrests have increased 50 percent in the last year, said John
Hollstein, enforcement coordinator for the U.S. Customs Service office in
Blaine.

But that hardly seems to matter.

"Conservatively, we catch less than one-tenth of it," admitted Charles L.
McLeod, assistant special agent in charge of the Customs Service's Office
of Investigations, based in Seattle.

Others think the catch rate is more like one-tenth of 1 percent.

McLeod conceded that Customs isn't doing all it could.

"Manpower is the largest resource we don't got," he said. "We'd love to do
projects on trucking, use infrared technology. We have no manpower to do that.

"We feel our officers are needed on our southern border (with Mexico), but
if this goes on for four or five years, it will get dangerous on the
northern border (with Canada), and that's getting closer."

While the pot moves south, the money that users pay for it moves north.
Nearly $2 million in cash has been seized in the Blaine area alone in the
past year.

The amounts increase exponentially as B.C. Bud is carried south and east.
Prices rise from a base of $1,500 to $2,500 per pound in Vancouver, B.C.,
to $3,000 in Seattle, $4,000 in Portland, perhaps $6,000 in Los Angeles,
McLeod said.

Marijuana is estimated to be a $1 billion-a-year export, right behind
lumber and tourism as the leading businesses in British Columbia. The Royal
Canadian Mounted Police estimate there are about 9,000 "grow operations" in
the Vancouver area.

Most of it moves through Western Washington without stopping because the
prices are higher elsewhere and because sources here have locally grown
dope that is nearly as potent.

"We're seeing some (B.C. Bud)," said Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis,
"but not much. Most of it's going to Oregon, California or Eastern Washington."

The high price the dope commands in other markets carries risk.

"They get it across the border, and the further they go (from the border)
the bigger is the chance of getting caught," McLeod said.

A $189,000 cash seizure in Blaine led agents to $5.5 million stashed in a
locker at Fort Collins, Colo. That brought agents to stop a BMW in Kansas.
The car held $3.5 million. The driver committed suicide.

Getting the goods

Why is B.C. Bud so valuable?

Potency.

Tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical compound that gives marijuana users
their "high," can average 15 percent to 18 percent in B.C. Bud. That
compares with 3 percent to 5 percent in Mexican-grown marijuana.

"It's like a 50-cent cup of coffee compared to a $2.50 Starbucks," said
David Keller, special agent in charge of the U.S. Border Patrol's Blaine
office.

"I'd compare B.C. Bud to a good microbrew and Mexican marijuana to
Budweiser," added McLeod.

It is difficult to gather meaningful statistics on the recent emergence of
B.C. Bud, in part because large quantities haven't been on the market for
very long, in part because there are so many different agencies involved
without a centralized record-keeper.

But so far in the federal fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, U.S. agents have
seized nearly 2,600 pounds of B.C. Bud within the Blaine customs district
that stretches 40 miles along the border from the Georgia Strait to the
Cascade Crest.

"We're way over last year," said Keller.

Indeed. Agents confiscated a bit less than 2,000 pounds last year, and
about 1,500 in 1998.

Take what is called the Northwest-Midwest customs district, whose eastern
end is in Minnesota, and the seizures rise only marginally, to 3,090 pounds
this year.

Some 4,900 pounds have been confiscated along the American side of the
entire U.S.-Canadian border.

"But there were two major seizures in Detroit," McLeod said. "Factor them
out and Blaine has two-thirds of the total (volume seized) on the northern
border."

McLeod suspects there are more - and larger - forms of smuggling going on.
All seizures so far have been on the small side, under 250 pounds.

Low estimates indicate perhaps 160,000 pounds of B.C. Bud cross the border
every year, and McLeod is sure it's coming in larger quantities than the
batches seized so far.

"If it were coming down here in 30- to 70-pound bags the (smugglers) would
look like a line of lemmings," he said. "It's got to be going other ways."

Still, the border-keepers were able to stop a load of some 240 pounds two
weeks ago in a Canadian military truck, the largest seizure of B.C. Bud
ever made at Blaine.

In part, that's because U.S. and Canadian authorities created a special law
enforcement team to fight smuggling in the area where Washington's
Interstate 5 becomes British Columbia's Highway 99.

"We started to notice B.C. Bud in August of 1996," McLeod said. "It's grown
rapidly since then, and ... none of the agencies (alone) had the resources
to deal with the problem."

Those agencies formed the Integrated Border Enforcement Team, combining
U.S. and Canadian law enforcement agencies. The group has been so
successful that other border areas have adopted the idea.

"We found a solution," McLeod said, "and we're pretty pleased with ourselves."

"We've had a huge success up here," added Sgt. Glen Anderson, who heads the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police part of the Integrated Border Enforcement Team.

Where the money is

But if the group has been partially effective at the border, it hasn't been
nearly as potent at the source of the dope, the estimated 8,000 growers in
Vancouver and its suburbs.

Canada has no law letting police seize assets of a drug operation from
growers. Unlike American laws that allow courts to confiscate cash, cars,
boats, houses and other property, a Canadian grow operation loses only its
plants and growing equipment.

Conviction penalties are also far lighter, often a few thousand dollars in
fines and little or no jail time.

"Canadian law enforcement is knocking down doors every day, but it's the
punishment aspect" that's weak, said Keller.

A grower convicted of possessing 100 pounds in Canada would face a maximum
jail term of a day less than two years and serve time in a provincial jail,
not a federal prison.

"That's a very heavy sentence here in Canada," Anderson said.

Smugglers arrested on the U.S. side of the border face as much as 20 years
for federal conspiracy-to-smuggle convictions. But in Western Washington,
federal prosecutors won't take a case unless it involves at least 100
pounds of marijuana.

"I think they (smugglers) are aware that if they've got 100 pounds, they'll
get federal prosecution," McLeod said.

So most smugglers who are caught are carrying less.

More effective law enforcement in Blaine has pushed some growing and
smuggling operations to the east, where a smaller 50-pound threshold exists
in Spokane's federal courts.

Still, the flood continues, supported, agents say, by Vietnamese street
gangs in Vancouver and a Hell's Angels gang in White Rock, B.C.

Canada's Hell's Angels aren't like America's motorcycle gang of the same
name, Keller said. "This is pure organized crime."

The New York Times contributed to this report.

Reach staff writer Al Gibbs at 253-597-8650 or al.gibbs@mail.tribnet.com.