MILLION-DOLLAR DRUG BUST ON CSL SHIP

Sydney - A $12-$14 million drug bust on a Canada Steamship Lines
vessel, docked in Sydney harbour, Wednesday, may well be the largest
Cape Breton has ever seen.

In August 2000, a $10.8 million cocaine seizure in Aulds Cove, was
believed to be the largest ever in Cape Breton at the time. In the
2000 incident, the Norwegian vessel Ballangen yielded 47 single bricks
of cocaine weighing 54.2 kilograms.

The cocaine in the this week's bust is believed to have come from the
same location, the port of Maracaibo, Venezuela. The city borders the
number one country in the world for cocaine production, Colombia.

Early Wednesday morning, RCMP and Canadian Border Service Agency
officials seized the drugs during a routine inspection of the CSL
vessel, the Sheila Ann, using an underwater camera.

The vessel, which has been in operation with CSL since January 2000,
is named after Prime Minister Paul Martin's wife, Sheila Ann Martin.

Martin was appointed president of CSL in 1974 and he and a partner
bought the company in 1981 for $189 million. Martin bought out his
partner in 1988 and took full control.

When he entered politics in the mid-1990s, Martin placed CSL in a
blind trust, meaning he still owned the company but was isolated from
its management and day-to-day operations.

Last year, under pressure from opposition parties, he and his wife
transferred control of the company to their three adult sons, Paul,
James and David.

The Sheila Ann was docked at the Emera Inc. coal piers, located at the
bottom of Dominion Street in Whitney Pier. The 70,000 dwt (dead weight
tonne) self-unloader was delivering bulk coal.

The vessel was cleared to leave Sydney harbour and departed at about
6:30 p.m., Wednesday.

Michel Proulx, spokesperson for the CBSA, said the 83 kilos of drugs
were stashed in two duffel bags hidden in the rudder area of the vessel.

"CBSA staff conducted a targeted examination of a vessel that came in
from Venezuela," he said. "The crew and captain have been spoken with
and no charges have been laid."

Proulx said the drugs were found on the sea chest area of the ship,
which holds ballast water. He believes divers were the only ones able
to place the drugs on the outside of the vessel.

"It was totally done under the ship," he said. "We needed a diver to
locate it, so I'm assuming they would use divers to plant this stuff
on the ship."

The vessel was destined for Halifax and eventually, Florida, but
Proulx said he was unsure where the drugs were meant to be delivered.

He said a joint investigation between the RCMP and CBSA is still
underway.

"It's not uncommon for legitimate companies to be exploited by
organized crime and the international movement of drugs and
contraband," said Proulx.

"It looks at this point and time (that) it was piggy-backed
on."

Susan Horne, president of the Customs Excise Union in Nova Scotia,
which represents customs officers, said the drugs were almost
certainly destined for Canada, as they would have interfered with the
crew unloading coal in Sydney and would surely have been noticed. They
were stuffed inside the grate where water is taken in to fill the
ship's ballast for stabilization during the on- and offloading of cargo.

How the drugs made it on the ship undetected is unclear, said
Horne.

''The ship's owner has committed to work to improve security for the
vessel,'' she said.

CSL is headquartered in Montreal and has offices in Halifax, Winnipeg,
Burlington, Ont., Boston, Singapore and Sydney, Australia.

Martine Malka, a spokesperson for the company, said the packages must
have been smuggled in from Maracaibo, the vessel's last stop before
Sydney.

She said four bolts holding an underwater grate to the bottom of the
ship were removed sometime before the vessel docked, then replaced
after the packages were hidden inside.

''This cannot be done through the ship,'' Malka said. ''The only way
this could have been done is by divers underwater.''