BORDER VALLEY RECOUNTS COLOURFUL PAST

Haven For Smugglers

WHISKEY GAP, Alta. - Once a favourite route for Prohibition whiskey
smugglers like the notorious Emilio Picariello, this small valley in
southern Alberta now has only a historical marker to remind visitors
of its colourful past.

But its remote location just a stone's throw from the United States
border makes it ideal for continued use by modern smugglers who deal
instead in marijuana, cocaine and human cargo.

"When you get out to the farmland and the Prairie land down here,
it's definitely an attractive venue for some of them, and they
definitely do come out and try," said RCMP Const. Jeff Smith of
I-BET, the Integrated Border Enforcement Team based in Raymond, Alta.

The most recent incident occurred in December 2005 when a 21-year-old
drug mule was caught attempting to smuggle 32 kilograms of cocaine
into Canada. Kenneth Holland was being pursued by the border patrol
when he drove through a barbed wire fence and became stuck in the snow.

He escaped on foot and was caught after a 23-kilometre chase.
Holland, who was sentenced in June to 10 years in prison, confessed
he'd made other cross-border drug runs in the months before his arrest.

"You do get some people driving across there, but if you get to some
of the more remote areas, you start dealing with dirt bikes and
quads, and we do see that as well," said Smith.

Whiskey Gap lies about 300 kilometres south of Calgary near the Del
Bonita border entry. During the 1920s and '30s it was a booming
hamlet with a general store, restaurant, pool hall, blacksmith,
lumberyard and three grain elevators.

The gap through the hills was originally used by 1860s and 1870s
American traders who crossed the border to trade goods and alcohol
for buffalo robes and furs.

During the 1916-1924 Prohibition period in Alberta, booze was
smuggled through from the United States. Later, when the U.S.
declared its own Prohibition, it flowed in the opposite direction.

Emilio Picariello started a thriving bootlegging business in 1918 and
became a familiar face in Whiskey Gap. The man known as "Emperor Pic"
was eventually hanged along with accomplice Florence Lossandro in
1923 for the murder of a police officer.

According to legend, rum-runners being chased by the law would drop
loads of illicit booze into sinkholes in the area. The wooden casks
would sink to the bottom and eventually resurface to be picked up a
few days later when the heat was off.

That has led to any number of amateur historians searching for kegs
of whiskey that never got collected. To date, none of the lost kegs
has been found.

Patricia Schmaltz, 83, of Lethbridge was just a girl when she lived
in Whiskey Gap in the early 1930s. Everyone knew about the smuggling,
but no one was supposed to talk about it.

"It was just sort of acknowledged. We would hear somebody was coming
through with a load of liquor and of course nobody told anything to
the kids," said Schmaltz.