HUGE HASH BUST IN HALIFAX

Customs finds 11.5 tonnes of drugs worth $210 million

By Randy Jones and Patricia Brooks / Crime Reporters

Bricks of hashish from the Port of Halifax's largest-ever drug seizure -
emblazoned with the words Night Cristal, oozing oil and smelling like a
musty basement - were unveiled Wednesday.

The 11.5-tonne seizure, worth about $210 million on the street, was found
in a shipping container from Pakistan unloaded at the Fairview Cove
terminal last Friday night.

"It's our biggest seizure by volume in the Port of Halifax to date," said
Roy Jamieson, spokesman for the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

It was also the biggest-ever hash seizure in Atlantic Canada.

Ottawa spends $172.5m on port security

The difficult task of determining who was behind the massive shipment has
just begun.

Investigators say the hash arrived in a container of cotton fabric and cat
food. The drug was loaded in Pakistan and sent to Hong Kong, where it was
loaded onto another ship that went through a number of ports, including
stops in Malaysia, Singapore and Italy, before arriving in Halifax on its
way to Montreal.

"We're looking at a number of groups," said Jack Fagan, head of customs
intelligence in Atlantic Canada. "There's no indication whatsoever that
it's linked to terrorism. But when you are speaking of drugs of this
magnitude, organized crime is likely involved."

Pakistani ports such as Karachi are major shipping points for heroin,
hashish and other drugs. Even before the fight against global terrorism
intensified, the United States was pushing Pakistan to stem the flow of
drugs going through the country, mainly from Afghanistan, on their way to
Europe and the U.S.

Customs officials say the container seized Friday was targeted because of
its point of origin and because of inaccuracies in its documents.

"There appeared to be some information that, if not false, it was at least
missing, incomplete," Mr. Jamieson said. "Based on (customs workers')
assessment, they felt we should have a look at it."

Longshoremen say they were suspicious of the container even before customs
inspectors arrived.

"We found it but we really didn't," said Gerald Murphy, president of Local
269 of the Halifax International Longshoremen's Association.

A stevedore moving containers on the pier overnight Friday accidentally
drove a forklift into the already damaged container, which sent a bale of
what appeared to be cat food spilling out, Mr. Murphy said.

"My understanding is the men just looked at it and just chucked it back
there and it landed on the ground and a machine drove over it and it got
recognized that way.

"According to my men, that's what happened."

Customs officers arrived and took over.

"Customs were there sweeping up speckles with a little dustpan and dust
broom on the (pier) and analysing it," Mr. Murphy said.

Later, customs inspectors loaded the container onto a flatbed and took it
to their inspection facility in Dartmouth.

Inspectors used a new high-tech gamma ray mobile scanner - basically a
giant X-ray machine on an arm attached to a truck - to look inside the
closed container.

The equipment is part of a major port security initiative unveiled Wednesday.

At a news conference in Halifax earlier in the day, the federal government
announced it will spend $172 million over the next five years on technology
and training to increase security at Canadian ports and improve
surveillance at sea.

The announcement and other recent measures, including installing fences
around port terminals and adding more security officers, are in response to
the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.

About three per cent of the containers shipped through Halifax are
inspected, but customs officials hope the new equipment will significantly
increase that figure.

Customs officials won't say what ship the drugs came in on, but the three
vessels unloaded at the Fairview container terminal Friday and early
Saturday were the Jervis Bay, the Bremen Express and the Singapore Express.

The first two arrived Friday morning while the Singapore Express arrived at
about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

Hapag-Lloyd operates two of the ships but a local company spokesman said
Wednesday he knew nothing of the seizure.

The Port of Halifax was raided last July as part of an investigation into
an international drug smuggling ring, but investigators insisted Wednesday
this bust doesn't appear to have any links to people working at the port.

The ring busted last year, said to be Canada's biggest, included three port
workers. The ring allegedly funnelled tonnes of cocaine, marijuana, hash
and hash oil through the Port of Halifax.

During an 18-month investigation dubbed Operation Haven, $95.7 million in
drugs was seized in places like Halifax, New Brunswick, Montreal, Hamilton
and Barrie, Ont.