U.S. INCREASING SURVEILLANCE OF CANADIAN BORDER

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) - As part of a plan to increase surveillance of the
Canadian border, federal officials on Friday opened the first of five
planned bases for regular flights to look for drug runners and others
crossing illegally by air or land.

The base of operations, called the Bellingham Air Marine Branch, is to have
a staff of nearly 70, two helicopters, an airplane and a high-speed boat by
year's end. Similar bases have policed the Mexican border for three
decades, but the facility here is the first on the Canadian border.

The five new bases, which will dot the border from Washington to upstate
New York, are a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as well
as smuggling of illegal immigrants and drugs, including British Columbia's
potent strains of marijuana.

"Smuggling is a two-way street," said Michael Milne, a spokesman for
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland
Security. "We've got cocaine and money going north," and marijuana and
people coming south.

A station in Plattsburgh, N.Y., is scheduled by the end of the year, Mr.
Milne said, followed by ones near Detroit; Grand Forks, N.D.; and Great
Falls, Mont.

The Bellingham base will initially operate flights only about eight hours a
day.

"Our greatest asset right now is they don't know when we're going to be
operating," said Mitch Pribble, a pilot and associate field director for
the office.

The aircraft will allow agents to track suspicious flights in which the
pilot does not report to customs or talk on the radio. Federal pilots will
follow such aircraft or direct agents on the ground.