B.C. MARIJUANA TRADE SOARS

It's just like the Roaring '20s, when booze from Canada was smuggled across
the border into the 'dry' United States. Only this time, the contraband
flooding over the line is high-grade B.C. marijuana -- and cocaine from
south of the border is coming here in return. Cops worry that the new,
highly potent pot is turning some users violent -- even murderous -- and
they want soft judges to get tough on the rising number of smugglers and
growers they bust

A cross-border trade in illegal drugs smuggled between B.C. and the United
States has reached proportions that put the age of Prohibition in the shade,
senior police and customs officers say.

Arrests of smugglers and drug seizures show a pattern of barter in which
high-potency marijuana grown in B.C. is being exchanged pound for pound for
cocaine from the U.S.

Police efforts to crack down on the smugglers are hampered by the ease with
which they operate across the unprotected border.

Along Zero Avenue in Langley, where only a ditch separates parallel roads in
Canada and the U.S., drug movement has become so prevalent it has been
christened by police the "Ho Chi Minh Trail," after the smuggling route used
by the communists for supplies during the Vietnam war.

On the U.S. side alone, more than $12 million in illegal drugs was seized
last year. Police say this represents a fraction of what is getting through
in a trade that may be worth as much as $3 billion a year.

They say cocaine coming into Canada quickly finds its way on to the streets
of Lower Mainland communities, where it is often injected with shared
needles, fuelling the spread of HIV.

Doug Whalley, assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle, said: "My concern is not
so much the Canadian marijuana coming down here; it's the cocaine flooding
in from our side that I fear is going to have an awful impact on your young
people."

Prosecutors in Whatcom county are "completely swamped" with border
drug-trafficking cases, says Whalley.

Sometimes the quantities are "mind boggling," he says.

"Two Canadians admitted bringing in a total of 1,700 pounds of marijuana in
10-pound loads. And we made one seizure of $200,000 in profits being taken
back to Canada."

Enormous profits are being made by the B.C. marijuana growers, says
Staff-Sgt. Rick Lawrence of Langley RCMP, which last month set up a special
squad to bust "grow ops."

The marijuana is being grown in indoor hydroponic gardens.

The RCMP's Drug Awarenesss Unit estimates that there are at least 1,000 grow
ops in the Lower Mainland and another 1,000 in the Interior.

"It's bigger than during Prohibition," says Lawrence, speaking of the era
when Canadian booze was smuggled into a "dry" U.S.

Lawrence shows off a $100,000 haul of Mexican Red marijuana, packed in
plastic bags ready for export, that was recently found abandoned on Zero Avenue.

Most growers hire "runners" to take the dope across the border, he says,
paying them between $2,000 and $3,000.

The runners "don't look like stereotypical criminals," says Const. Pierre
Lemaitre of Langley RCMP. "We've had a mother and daughter -- even an
elderly couple."

Police in Langley are trying to establish a Border Watch -- along
Neighborhood Watch lines -- to encourage citizens to report suspicious
activities along the border.

On July 28, an open meeting will be held at the Langley civic centre where
landlords will be warned that most grow ops are set up in rented properties
by people who make every show of being "normal" citizens.

In fact, say police, most of the drug trade is controlled by organized-crime
gangs -- mostly bikers -- and, increasingly, they are armed. Firearms were
found in one in five grow ops raided in Surrey.

Also in Surrey, three homicides last year were linked to gang rivalry. In
Kamloops, there have been drive-by shootings attributed to the same cause.

"Rips" -- raids by one gang on another's crop -- are common. In at least 10
cases in Surrey, police have had to intervene to prevent violence.

A six-month police undercover operation in Kamloops, involving wiretaps and
surveillance, revealed insights into how dope gangs operate.

What emerged in a court case last month was the existence of a provincewide
network organizing the procurement of huge supplies of marijuana for
eventual export.

"It was a highly organized effort, with the surveillance showing people
meeting with their contacts," said a source close to the investigation.

In one seizure alone, $28,000 US was found stuffed into false-bottomed spray
cans of lubricant.

Sgt. Dennis Ryan, head of the RCMP south central drug district, says: "The
(Kamloops) organization has been neutralized. The main players were convicted."

But he admits that the unnamed "contacts" escaped scot-free.

Of the five men charged in the case, one was sentenced to 18 months, another
to only 90 days. The rest escaped with fines.

Although police confidently assert that "70 per cent of commercial grow
operations are controlled by the Hells Angels," no biker has yet been
convicted of such an offence.

Nevertheless, Const. Vince Arsenault of the Surrey RCMP drug section
insists: "The evidence we have is that the Hells Angels control these
operations and that the people doing the growing are just the babysitters."

Special squads formed to bust grow ops, sometimes called "green teams," are
now running in Surrey, Langley and Chilliwack -- but, in fact, every RCMP
drug section has personnel assigned to fight the problem.

Resources are still scarce, however. Last year, Surrey's green team raided
143 grow ops -- but a list of 200 targets remains.

Changes in the law mean police can't go barging into premises merely on the
suspicion they may be grow ops.

Says Langley's Rick Lawrence: "We have to build up a case with solid
evidence before we ask for a search warrant. It's a time-consuming task."

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett