RISE IN SMUGGLING EXPECTED IN INTERIOR

Authorities Say Crackdown At Coast Will Push Smugglers Eastward

The announcement that U.S. border authorities are stepping up
enforcement against smuggling in the Vancouver area is expected to
herald another increase in smuggling in the Interior.

Doris Meissner, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services
commissioner, has announced plans to install a $4.5-million fibre
optic system along the B.C.-Washington border from Blaine east to the
Cascade Mountain foothills.

She also said seven more agents will be added to the Pacific Highway
border crossing to assist in combating drug and people smuggling.

Authorities on both sides of the border say the plugging up of gaps in
the Fraser Valley is bound to lead to more smuggling in the less
intensively patrolled Interior.

"It's obvious that the pressure in the Vancouver area is pushing the
drug smuggling this way," said Richard Graham, officer in charge of
the U.S. Border Patrol's Oroville office.

Less than two weeks ago, Graham arrested a Pender Island man just over
the border carrying $226,000 worth of marijuana.

Though he does not have up-to-date statistics, he said the number of
arrests are up dramatically in the past year as pressure has mounted
in the Lower Mainland to slow the flow.

"We are seeing the increases over here already. A lot of the people we
are arresting are from Vancouver or have ties to the Vancouver area."

Const. Pete Frizzell of the Border Enforcement Team in Chilliwack,
concurred. "(Smugglers moving eastward) seems to be a trend in the
last eight or 10 months with the increase in enforcement down here, as
well as the publicity. I think what we are doing down here is
effecting what is happening up there. It has forced some of the
smuggling to the Interior part of the province."

Since the Border Enforcement Team was started two years ago, it has
chalked up an increasing number of busts. Frizzell said the unit is
averaging $1 million a month worth of drug seizures. There is now
talk, he said, of expanding the unit eastward along the un-defended
border.

Still, he said agents are getting just the tip of the iceberg as
demand for the increasingly popular "B.C. bud" intensifies. "I have
heard we are only getting 10 per cent of the traffic," he said.

He notes B.C.-grown marijuana sold here for $2,000 can fetch $6,000 US
in California.

John Manderson of the RCMP customs and excise unit in Kelowna said
smugglers have used everything from dirt bikes to horses to boats on
Osoyoos Lake as well as simply driving or walking across the Interior
border.

He said Canadian agencies work closely with those across the border,
who have significantly more resources to deal with smuggling.

"We are getting more people this way," he said. "Most of the activity
is going south."

Graham said he has asked for increased manpower as cross border
traffic increases, though no announcement has been made. "The more men
I can put on the border, the more people I can catch," he said.