FIGHTING TO CONTAIN CRIME

Halifax Desirable Port Of Entry For Ships Unloading Illicit Cargo

Every day, away from the public view and in the biggest cities and smallest
towns, a sophisticated cat-and-mouse game pits border security agents
against international crime gangs.

In Atlantic Canada last year, the Canada Border Services Agency's more than
400 officers and 300 other employees seized $47,177,640 worth of narcotics.

The 146 drug busts netted 251 kilograms of drugs, including 203 kilograms
of cocaine and 48 kilograms of opium.

They also seized enough ecstasy for 553,000 doses and 400 grams of marijuana.

But the smugglers never quit.

Container traffic has made Halifax a desirable port of entry for ships
unloading illicit cargo.

Two of the four major seizures last year took place here, the other two
were at ports in Sydney and Belledune, N.B.

Targeting containers arriving in Halifax, agents seized 48 kilograms of
opium in November with an estimated street value of $2.4 million. Officers
and a detector dog discovered the drugs inside two wooden door panels of a
container bound for Ontario from Iran.

An ecstasy seizure in January from another targeted container at the port
netted 110 kilograms worth over $19 million.

Digital video images from submersibles in Sydney Harbour in June and at
Belledune in December revealed large quantities of cocaine attached to the
ships' hulls.

The Sydney seizure of 68 kilograms was worth about $8.5 million, and at
Belledune 52 kilograms worth about $6.5 million was discovered.

But things are quieter this year, so far. No major seizures have been made,
according to Jennifer Morrison, communications manager for the Canada
Border Services Agency.

Even customs officers admit being impressed with the smuglers' ingenuity.

In 1998, for example, customs investigators at the Halifax container
terminal found $26.2 million worth of marijuana packed inside spinach cans
destined for the Toronto area. The cans, which contained plastic packets
full of 1,748 kilograms of marijuana and oil from the drug, were among
1,275 cases of food inside a marine container from Kingston, Jamaica.

"It's a pretty good method, it's not easy to detect," a customs official
said at the time.

In February 2003, agents made what is believed to be the biggest-ever
hashish seizure by volume at the Port of Halifax when 11.5 tonnes, worth
about $210 million on the street, was found in a shipping container
unloaded at the Fairview Cove terminal.

Investigators said the hash arrived in a cargo of cotton fabric and cat
food. The drug was loaded in Pakistan and sent to Hong Kong, where it was
transferred to another ship that went through a number of ports, including
stops in Malaysia, Singapore and Italy, before arriving in Halifax on its
way to Montreal.

"When you are speaking of drugs of this magnitude, organized crime is
likely involved," Jack Fagan, head of customs intelligence in Atlantic
Canada, speculated after the seizure.

Federal Crown attorney James Martin said containers filled with large
quantities of drugs are shipped on to Montreal, Toronto and other Canadian
destinations where they're broken down and in some cases filtered back into
this region through mid-level operations.

In recent years, he said, containers have become the shipping method of
choice for traffickers.

"We have seen a dramatic decrease in offloading of drugs from ships along
the coastline," Mr. Martin said. He attributed the decline to "incredibly
high" prison sentences handed out in the Atlantic region in the 1980s and '90s.

Mr. Martin said organizations that have been into importing for a long time
are running some of the operations.

"They have an organized pattern that gets repeated," he said.

"It's organized when individuals come together for an agreement and plan to
bring in a tonne of coke or four tonnes of cannabis resin. It takes a lot
of money upfront for these huge operations."

Crack cocaine is the most common hard drug, Mr. Martin said.

"Fortunately in Atlantic Canada, we haven't seen very much heroin," he
said. "We're extremely fortunate for whatever cultural or economic reason .
. . to avoid that travesty being experienced in Montreal, Toronto and
Vancouver."

Mr. Martin said marijuana growing operations in the Atlantic region are on
the rise and have become very sophisticated.

"We've seen a dramatic increase in marijuana grow operations that have
increased in sophistication tenfold in four or five years," he said.

Growers often virtually rebuild homes by installing ventilation systems up
through floors and filtering the smell of the marijuana through the
chimneys, Mr. Martin said.

Electrical and wiring systems are also increasingly sophisticated.

"We can the say the quality of plants seized are better and the yields are
better," he said.

Mr. Martin said police have indicated to him that the high volumes of
production suggest the dope is destined for the U.S. market.

He noted that in the past three or four years, "the classic petty retailer"
is disappearing.

"We're finding retailers are extremely organized, they have an apartment
being operated by staff working shifts 24 hours a day," Mr. Martin said.

"They use young offenders, people with no records, women with children,
anybody that might be seen by the courts to be looked upon more favourably
during a sentencing hearing."

The small retail operations that do survive are becoming more
sophisticated, he said.

"The operations are larger and there seems to be a trend toward a group of
individuals taking over a certain geographical area to set up these shops,
resulting in confrontation between rival groups."

Mr. Martin said small-time retailers have now become mid-level dealers
because they are bringing in crack cocaine, dividing it up and selling it
in larger quantities.

And there's another worrisome development along with the changes in the
street drug scene.

"We're seeing a troubling trend between drugs and the increase in the
number of weapons seized in raids," he said.

"The line is also slowly disappearing between those dealing in soft and
hard drugs."

Mr. Martin said organization is paramount in almost all drug trafficking
offences.

"Dealers have to get their drugs, they have to set up their retail
locations and they have to make a decision . . . to take that particular
risk," he said.