BORDER BUSTS DOING LITTLE TO STOP DRUGS

Stiffer Sentences Essential To Discouraging Drug Couriers

Stiff jail sentences for drug couriers send the right signal to other
smugglers but do little to stem the overall flow of drugs across the
Canada-U.S. border, says a southern Alberta border cop.

Because of the large amounts of money to be made for transporting
drugs, penalties such as the eight-year jail term handed out locally
this week to a convicted cocaine smuggler are essential to discourage
others from doing the same thing, says Const. Jeff Smith of the RCMP
Rocky Mountain Integrated Border Enforcement Team.

"If they see these guys getting decent sentences, it may discourage
them (from becoming drug couriers). Good long jail sentences are the
only thing that I think are going to deter these guys."

A 30-year-old Edmonton man received the sentence last Monday when he
was convicted in Lethbridge provincial court for importing 69
kilograms of cocaine worth $9 million into the country. Wade Alexander
Overacker was caught at the Coutts border crossing Jan. 15 with the
cocaine hidden under a false floor in a trailer he was towing.

He was paid $3,500 to carry the cocaine across the border.

Smith says to make a serious dent in the cross-border drug trade,
however, it's essential to do more than bust the flunkies hired to
transport drugs.

"It'll slow them down for a while, if nothing else," he says. "You
definitely have to get higher up the food chain to make a significant
impact."

Illicit drugs move both ways across the border. High-grade B.C. Bud
marijuana is the main commodity heading south and cocaine is the
primary import coming north from the U.S., says Smith.

His team and others like it across the country work with authorities
on both sides of the border to nab smugglers and identify drug
sources. Large drug shipments smuggled into Canada are typically
destined for large cities and often are then filtered out to smaller
centres such as Lethbridge.

"We classify this as organized crime," he says. "In a lot of cases,
the larger-type shipments of drugs are linked to known organized crime
groups."

Lethbridge drug traffickers, whether they're smaller street level
dealers or higher-level distributors, usually bring in drugs from
Calgary or Vancouver.

"They're always sourced from somewhere else," says Staff Sgt. Jim
Carriere, head of organized crime investigations for Lethbridge
regional police."

He acknowledges busting dealers higher up the distribution chain has a
longer-term effect on slowing the drug trade than shutting down
low-level dealers such as "dial-a-dopers" who market their goods by
cellphone.

"They're low-level, but they're a necessary part of our investigation
because they can grow rampant if they're left unchecked. Those people
are connected up the chain, so sometimes they lead up the chain," he
says.