RCMP VOW MORE SEARCHES AFTER COCAINE SEIZURE ON MARTIN SHIP

SYDNEY - Ships owned by Prime Minister Paul Martin's sons will be
searched for drugs more often when arriving in Cape Breton, this
newspaper has learned.

RCMP Sgt. Ken McKinnon said Friday that since cocaine was found
stashed on one of the vessels, there will be closer inspections when
another 43 ships owned by Canada Steamship Lines arrive with coal from
South America this year.

About $12 million worth of cocaine was found on the underside of the
coal boat Sheila Ann in Sydney on June 30. It was the first CSL-owned
vessel ever used as a drug mule.

"More will be checked than not," said Sgt. McKinnon, head of the RCMP
drug enforcement unit. "I'm not saying we're going to check every one
but it only makes common sense that, OK, we identified the Sheila Ann
and have source information coming out of Venezuela now.

"We're looking at other boats and we're going to be checking more of
them and eventually somebody in Colombia or Venezuela is going to say,
we can't use that method anymore, we can't use ports anymore because
Mounties and customs are always there."

The 225-metre Sheila Ann was searched in Sydney by the Canada Border
Services Agency.

Using a motorized underwater camera and private divers, customs agents
retrieved two duffle bags containing 83 kilograms of coke behind a
grate near the ballast tanks.

Customs agents do not need a warrant and did not have one, all they
need is prior intelligence, said spokesman Chris Kealey. RCMP were
called in to back them up and take over the investigation and the coke.

"We did not know for a certainty that there were any drugs on board,"
Mr. Kealey said, noting authorities had documents and other
information he refused to discuss that made the ship a search target.

The underwater camera was brought to Sydney from Halifax before the
Sheila Ann docked June 29.

"We can't look at every single vehicle, every single container or
every single boat arriving in Canada or all trade will come to a
halt," Mr. Kealey said. "But it makes sense to be examining more
(ships with imported coal)."

Martine Malka, director of corporate communications for CSL, said from
her Quebec office Friday that the cocaine found on the Sheila Ann was
the first big find of illegal narcotics on any of the company's ships.

Other ships that sail under CSL's international banner, but not fully
owned by Mr. Martins' sons, have been busted for much smaller amounts.

Ms. Malka said CSL will co-operate with authorities.

"We have always been fully co-operative with all agencies and we have
a very proactive system with them.

"If we see any kind of suspicious activity we tell them in advance
that we suspect there might have been some tampering with the boat, or
some suspicious activity . . . prior to our arrival."

The drugs found on the Sheila Ann are believed to have been from
Maracaibo, Venezuela. The captain and crew were not charged by police
or disciplined by CSL and are back in Venezuela loading coal.

CSL secured the bulk of a three-million-tonne coal and petcoke
importing contract from Nova Scotia Power after Mr. Martin, as finance
minister in the Chretien government, cut funding to the Cape Breton
Development Corp., which operated two mines.

That move in 1999 led to closure of the Phalen mine in New Waterford
in 2000 and the Prince mine in Point Aconi in 2001. Thousands were
tossed out of work and the economy was thrown into a tailspin.

Last year, under pressure from opposition parties, Mr. Martin and his
wife Sheila transferred control of CSL to their three sons - Paul,
James and David. Mr. Martin gets a pension from the company.