PATRIOT ACT AIDED POT BUST

SEATTLE -- The U.S. Patriot Act made it possible for federal investigators
to search and bug a 110-metre tunnel under the U.S.-Canadian border, and
then watch and listen as hundreds of kilograms of marijuana were carried
through it.

Government agents surreptitiously installed video and audio devices after
obtaining a "sneak and peek" warrant, which allows searches that leave no
trace and are conducted without immediate notification of the subject.

Regular search warrants require that the subject be notified immediately
after a search. Usually notice is left at the scene, with details about any
removal of items.

With a sneak-and-peek warrant -- also called a delayed-notice warrant --
investigators arrange the timeline of the delay with a judge. Most often,
suspects are notified within 30 days, said Doug Whalley, an assistant U.S.
attorney in Seattle.

Groups Wary Of Powers

As Congress prepares to reauthorize parts of the law, some legislators and
civil-rights groups want to scale back some of the powers it grants. The
Senate Judiciary Committee, for example, recently introduced a bill that
would greatly limit how "sneak-and-peek" activity is conducted.

"I think that the power that the government has under the Patriot Act . is
clearly contrary to the notion underlying the Fourth Amendment," said
former U.S. Representative Bob Barr, a Republican from Georgia who leads an
organization called Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances.

The secret warrants are "being used in cases that have nothing whatsoever
to do with terrorism," Barr said.

Under Patriot Act warrants, suspects often are not aware for months that
their properties have been searched, said Lisa Graves, senior counsel for
legislative strategy for the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The Justice Department decided to create a statutory right across the
board, to try and create a national right of law enforcement to create
secret searches of businesses and homes, secret seizures of evidence," she said.