Section: News A1 / Front

NEW BORDER CAMERAS FOCUS ON DRUGS

A fibre optic system along the B.C.-Washington boundary will watch for
smugglers in areas that aren't patrolled.

A sophisticated camera system set up at the border is the latest aid
in the war on drug-smuggling.

A 40-kilometre stretch of the Canada-U.S. border -- from Blaine to the
foothills of the Cascade Mountains -- will be monitored by the new
system, United States Immigration and Naturalization Services
commissioner Doris Meissner said Thursday.

The system will be used to combat illegal smuggling of both drugs and
aliens over the border.

Meissner, a political appointee who answers directly to U.S.
Attorney-General Janet Reno, made the announcement at the Pacific
Highway border crossing, which she said also will receive seven more
agents to combat the illegal cross-border trafficking.

The high-grade B.C. marijuana that is shipped south to the U.S. is one
reason for spending an estimated $4.5 million US on the camera
surveillance system, she said.

U.S. Border Patrol deputy chief Eugene Davis said the camera
monitoring system is expected to be in place within a year. Engineers
are continuing to work on the system to improve its technology.

Davis said the system used here will be an improved version of that
used along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Much of the Canada-U.S. border where the system will be deployed is
monitored with motion or pressure sensors that alert U.S. authorities
when there is traffic across the many trails and unpatrolled sections
of the border popular with smugglers.

Davis said the current sensors trigger many false alarms when they are
tripped by animals.

The only way to check whether the sensors were tripped by a smuggler
or an animal is to dispatch a border agent, which can strain resources.

``The cameras will give us the opportunity to see what is moving
across the sensors,'' Davis said.

The cameras may have night vision capability.

In more accessible areas, the 30 to 40 cameras comprising the system
will be linked by fibre optics. In less accessible areas, the cameras
will be linked to border patrol headquarters by microwave
transmitters.

In May alone, about $2.5 million US worth of illegal drugs was
confiscated from smugglers by U.S. officials patrolling the border in
the Blaine area.

``Right now B.C. bud is one of the biggest commodities. There has just
been a phenomenal increase,'' Davis said.

Since the U.S. border patrol works closely with the RCMP through the
Integrated Border Enforcement Team, Davis said, it would be used to
battle smuggling from U.S. into Canada as well.

While U.S. enforcement officials have great concerns about the
marijuana and illegal aliens smuggled southward, Canadian law
enforcement officials concentrate their efforts on battling the
illegal importation of handguns and illegal aliens.

Sergeant Al Ellard, with the RCMP's Immigration and Passport section,
said the border cameras will help Canadian law enforcement efforts.