COURIER SERVICES NEW DRUG PIPELINE

Khat Seizures

Canada Customs officers say overnight mail and courier services are
becoming a new pipeline for international traffickers to smuggle drugs
into the country.

Record amounts of the east-African drug khat and shipments of Ecstasy
pills are being intercepted as Customs officials target overnight shipments.

"The preferred mode to smuggle some drugs is by courier or mail," said
customs spokesman Mark Butler.

Officers at Pearson International Airport two weeks ago seized a
shipment of 54,000 Ecstasy pills -- worth $1.9 million -- in a parcel
mailed from Belgium. The pills were in jars of skin and hair cream.

Customs officers have made a record-breaking 60 khat seizures this
year, stopping $500,000 of the drug from hitting the streets, Butler
said.

"There's been a dramatic increase in the amount of khat we're seizing
in overnight shipments," he said. "A lion's share of seizures are from
mail and courier services."

He said the bark-like drug khat, with a shelf life of three days,
arrives at Pearson on Thursday or Friday, and is used largely by
Somali and east African communities on weekends.

Officers said khat is smuggled here in 10-pound courier packages from
Britain or the Netherlands, where it arrives daily on flights from
Africa.

Khat, which is resold in small bundles to users in Toronto, acts as a
stimulant when chewed.