NEW LAW SENDS DRUGGIES PACKING

Two British drug couriers were deported without hearings at Pearson
airport Thursday night after being busted for smuggling khat into Canada.

RCMP Sgt. Joe McAllister said the men were nabbed with suitcases of
the East African bark-like drug khat after arriving here on a
Lufthansa flight from London Heathrow.

Police said dozens of drug and contraband smugglers nabbed at Pearson
are being instantly turfed under provisions of a new immigration act
that took effect in June.

Prior to the legal change, the RCMP had to charge the offenders, take
them to court and begin deportation proceedings, an expensive process
that could take months.

Courts and jails freed up

McAllister said smugglers now are detained and placed on the next
available flight to whatever country they originated from.

"This process saves the taxpayer's money," McAllister said. "It also
frees up the courts and jails."

He said under the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,
travellers are deemed not to have entered Canada until they've cleared
the secure areas of the airport.

The Mounties said they seize several hundred kilos of khat monthly.
The drug, which has a lifespan of two days, is smuggled here by
couriers from Britain, where it is legal.

It produces a high when chewed and is sold to members of the African
community through a network of ethnic-food stores.