NEW ANTITERROR SCANNER FINDS HUGE HASHISH CACHE

HALIFAX -- A new X-ray scanning system for marine containers played a major
role in the largest drug seizure ever made in Atlantic Canada, the discovery
of almost 11 tonnes of hashish in a ship carrying cat food and cotton that
arrived in Halifax from Pakistan.

The new mobile scanner, known as vehicle- and cargo-inspection systems, is
part of a $172.5-million package of marine security initiatives announced
yesterday.

The package includes expanded surveillance of Canadian waters and screening
of dockyard workers as well as ships' passengers and crews. It comes after
several reports of organized-crime activity on the waterfronts in Montreal,
Vancouver and Halifax, and growing concerns about the inability of Canadian
ports to deal with terrorist activity.

The package calls for the federal government to purchase 11 of the scanners,
which allow Canada Customs officers to examine containers for suspicious
substances without having to physically tear apart the containers.

In the hashish case, the scanner was called into use after Canada Customs
officers received information about a suspicious cargo on a Pakistani ship
that was loaded in Hong Kong, said John Fagan, director of intelligence and
contraband for Canada Customs in Halifax.

On Friday, the X-ray machine found the drugs, which have a street value of
about $210-million, Mr. Fagan said.

Customs officials are hoping scanners mounted on trucks will enable them to
increase their surveillance of the hundreds of thousands of containers that
enter Canada every year. Some of those containers hold drugs or would-be
immigrants.

Mr. Fagan said physical searches allow inspectors to look through about 3
per cent of the nearly 500,000 containers that come into Halifax every year.

"This will allow us to do many more investigations than we have in the past.
In Vancouver, they are doing as many as 400 containers a day," he said.

Federal Revenue Minister Elinor Caplan highlighted the drug bust yesterday
as she and three other federal cabinet ministers announced a five-year
program aimed at reducing the risk of terrorist and organized-crime activity
in Canadian waters.

Included is $80.6-million in new radar systems and surveillance measures to
identify all ships entering Canadian waters. The departments of National
Defence and Fisheries and Oceans say they are going to expand their marine
patrols to track vessels.

Citizenship and Immigration will be adding an unspecified number of
officials to board ships coming into Canadian ports and to check passengers
and crews. They'll be looking for illegal immigrants and possible
terrorists.

"We don't know who is on board ships, and we want to know who is on board
ships," Transport Minister David Collenette said at a news conference.

Ottawa is also determined to find out who is working in ports. Last year,
reports said that close to 40 per cent of the more than 500 workers at the
Halifax waterfront had criminal records and that organized crime is active
in that port as well as in Montreal and Vancouver.

The federal government will now spend more than $20-million to establish
restricted areas in ports, where only people who have passed a series of
background checks may enter. Those checks will include an examination of the
individual's police records as well as fingerprinting and credit checks.

Mr. Collenette said the screening would be similar to the system that has
been in place for several years at airports.

About $9.6-million of the money will go to increasing the number of RCMP
emergency-response teams at ports, and establishing permanent investigator
posts.

Port officials praised the proposals but have concerns that there may not be
the personnel or the money to make the changes.