OLD WHISKY TRAIL PROVES USEFUL TO MODERN SMUGGLERS

WHISKEY GAP, ALTA. - Once a favourite route for Prohibition whisky
smugglers, this small valley in southern Alberta now has only a
historical marker to remind visitors of its colourful past.

But its remote location near the U.S. 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," said RCMP Constable
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. Mr. Holland, who was sentenced in June to 10
years in prison, confessed he had made other cross-border drug runs in
the months before his arrest.

Whiskey Gap lies about 300 kilometres south of Calgary near the Del
Bonita border entry. During Prohibition in Alberta, from 1916 to 1924,
booze was smuggled in from the United States. When the U.S. declared
its own Prohibition, it flowed in the other direction.

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 Ms. Schmaltz, whose father ran the Alberta Pacific
Grain Company elevator at the time.

According to legends, 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 many amateur historians searching for kegs of whisky
that never got collected. To date, none have been found.

As for modern-day smuggling, police still keep a watchful eye.

"Any smuggling across the border is an issue, whether it be illegal
drugs or whether it be human smuggling," Constable Smith said. "But is
it running rampant? I think not."