DRUGS SEIZED AT BORDER WINDING UP IN DUMP

OTTAWA -- Illegal drugs seized at the border -- including hash,
methadone and steroids -- are winding up in landfills because Canada's
border guards don't know they're supposed to be destroyed.

That's among the findings of a scathing report into sloppy security at
government warehouses, where some $400 million of seized contraband is
sent each year by the Canada Border Services Agency.

"Security and access control to storage facilities were below standard
and storage requirements for drugs, firearms and ammunition were not
consistently met," says the internal audit.

"Inventory control was inadequate."

Investigators examined supposedly secure facilities -- known as
Queen's warehouses or bond rooms -- in the province of Quebec, and in
the Toronto and Windsor, Ont., regions, where many of the 30,000
border seizures each year are made. More than half of all seizures are
drugs, alcohol and tobacco. The rest includes child pornography,
firearms, ammunition and jewelry. The report notes that seized items
are rarely suitable for sale on the government's online auction site,
creating a continuing storage and disposal challenge.

The audit, completed last month, cites a long litany of shoddy
security practices for the 68 facilities inspected, at airports, land
border crossings and postal plants.

"Physical security was below standard for half of the interior
facilities and all of the exterior facilities," the report says.

For example, 70 per cent of the warehouses or bond rooms were not
continuously monitored, whether by guards, cameras or motion detectors.

And at 15 facilities, the agency did not control access by
non-government persons. Twenty-three of the sites had no inventory
control whatsoever.

Seized drugs were a particular problem: paperwork was missing, there
were no safes for storage at most facilities, and many drugs were kept
in storage far too long, for years in some cases.

Government policy requires the border agency to turn over most
prohibited drugs to the RCMP for eventual incineration -- but workers
were unaware of the requirement, says the report.

Destruction, in most cases, involved tossing pills and bags of dope
into the garbage for a trip to the local landfill.

Investigators noted court cases could be compromised by the sloppy
storage, tracking and inventory of seized goods -- damaging the
"sterility of the chain of custody," which guards against the
contamination or tampering of evidence.

A 1998 internal audit of the warehouses found strikingly similar
weaknesses. And in 2007 the auditor general also raised the alarm.

"We noted poor control over the administration and handling of seized
goods, such as alcohol and firearms," Sheila Fraser reported to Parliament.

"We observed unrestricted access to seizure rooms at two
locations."

Despite earlier commitments to fix those problems, the February audit
said there has been "further degradation" of security.

The agency says it has taken measures that over the next year will
resolve most of the problems -- including a requirement that regions
report by this Tuesday on their immediate corrective actions.