NEW WEAPONS BROUGHT OUT IN SMUGGLING FIGHT

American border patrol agents expect to nab more drug smugglers in the
coming months when they introduce enhanced sensing equipment, night
vision and cameras from the Huntingdon to Peace Arch crossings.

One of the main focus areas for the 133 agents will be the Huntingdon
crossing in Abbotsford, which U.S. border patrol deputy chief Joe
Giuliano says has been a hotspot for smuggling over the past several
months. Four men were caught smuggling drugs at the Huntingdon
crossing in two separate incidents in May.

"We're definitely upping the ante," said Giuliano last week. "The
demand for drugs remains across the U.S., and that demand is obviously
being filled."

Giuliano says Canadian smugglers usually bring marijuana into the U.S.
in exchange for cocaine and guns. He says the going rate is a pound of
pot for a pound of cocaine, or a pound of pot for two guns.

In each May incident U.S. agents arrested two men. The first case, on
May 9, saw a 20- and a 21-year-old trying to take about $1.2 million
worth of ecstasy into the U.S. In the second case, on May 19, two
19-year-old Abbotsford men were caught with 134 pounds of pot near the
border. It was valued at $673,000.

All four face charges, but Giuliano said enforcement "isn't
necessarily the answer. We lock one up, someone else steps in and
takes their place. It's such a lucrative business."

He says there has to be more deterrents in place, such as the new
border equipment.

He noted that in the coming years the U.S. government is also
implementing the American Shield Initiative, which will see an
elaborate border system set up with cameras and sensors linked to
satellites. It will enable border agents to watch live footage of the
borders from laptop computers in their vehicles. He says this system
will be put in across all Canadian-U.S. borders, and could cost as
much as $20 billion.

"It's Star Wars-type stuff," said Giuliano.

But he added that it won't be completed for several years.