CBSA POWERS WIDEN

Crackdown to target smuggling by staff at airports, ports Border
guards could soon be cracking down on smuggling by airport and port
workers, Canada's border guards could soon get new powers to strip
search employees in airports and ports across Canada in a bid to crack
down on the smuggling of illegal drugs, such as marijuana, ecstasy and
cocaine.

CBSA officers also would be allowed to frisk employees and to use
various types of scanners and detectors to examine goods in their possession.

The proposed new regulations, which do not have to be passed by
Parliament, would apply to everyone whose work requires them to be in
proposed new customs-controlled areas, regardless of whether they are
baggage handlers or ambulance attendants responding to an emergency.

All that would be needed to frisk employees or trigger a strip search
would be for a CBSA officer to have reasonable grounds to believe a
worker in a customs-controlled area is smuggling something illegal.

Currently, border officers have limited powers to search employees as
they leave a customs area. Under the proposed changes, they would have
the power to search employees within a customs-controlled area and
those areas would cover more of an airport or port than they currently
do

The regulations are part of the government's efforts to stem the
tide of illegal drugs being smuggled into Canada by organized crime.
It's a multimillion-dollar trade the federal government says is
flourishing with the help of airport and dock workers who are either
planted in jobs or recruited after they start.

"oeSome individuals with unrestricted access to secure areas of
airports and marine terminals, such as mechanics, baggage handlers and
longshoremen ... are suspected to be involved in internal
conspiracies," the government says in the notice of the proposed
regulation.

The government points to a 2008 study by the RCMP that concluded 58
organized crime groups were using Canada's major airports for
illegal activities.

For example, in 2007, eight people were arrested and charged with drug
offences relating to the trafficking of 39 kilograms of ecstasy
tablets, three kilograms of cocaine and eight pounds of marijuana.
About $106,000 in cash also was seized.

"oeThis group had members of their criminal network operating within
the airport who were able to use their positions to move drugs and
money to and from Canada," the government wrote.

In a bid to attack the problem, the government amended the Customs Act
in 2009 to set up new customs-controlled areas (CCA) in locations
where travellers and domestic workers could come into contact with
people or goods that have not yet been cleared by the CBSA.

The controlled areas, which are not yet in place, will be phased in
over three years starting with Canada's three largest airports.