UNDERCOVER ACTION ENDS IN DRUG BUST ON B.C. FERRY

Labrador Retriever Trained To Sniff Drugs Finds Seven Kilograms Of Pot In
Car Trunks

VICTORIA -- Police are praising a program that led to eight drug arrests on
a West Coast ferry, where plainclothes officers with sniffer dogs tracked
down marijuana while strolling the car deck.

Twice, a drug-sniffing Labrador retriever sat down next to a car after
scenting marijuana from the trunk, Staff Sergeant Douglas Bruce of West
Vancouver police said yesterday.

"When the dogs smell the odour of a controlled substance, they simply sit
down," Staff Sgt. Bruce said. "We went on the ferry with the intent of not
alarming anybody to our being there.

"It was a very covert operation," he said.

Staff Sgt. Bruce hailed this week's Operation High Seas as a success, but
John Dixon, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, criticized
police, saying they abused their powers and wasted valuable resources to
seize seven kilograms of marijuana.

"The trunk of your vehicle enjoys at least as great a claim to privacy as
your underwear drawer," Mr. Dixon said. "Unless the police have reasonable
and probable grounds, they do not have a right to subject your private
materials to search."

During the ferries' busy summer season, the prospect of further "fishing
expeditions" by plainclothes police will deprive passengers of enjoying
their privacy in what should be a laid-back journey, Mr. Dixon argued.

Police arrested eight people during Tuesday's search conducted over the
course of four trips between Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver and Nanaimo on
Vancouver Island. Three people have been charged.

A 43-year-old man and 30-year-old woman from Lasqueti Island, travelling
together to Nanaimo, face charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

A 37-year-old man from Lantzville, B.C., also faces a drug-trafficking
charge after being arrested during a trip to West Vancouver.

Police arrested five others who were caught smoking marijuana cigarettes on
the car deck, but those five were released because the goal was to catch
traffickers, not nab puffing passengers, Staff Sgt. Bruce said.

He defended the operation, saying that police targeted suspected
traffickers but did not open trunks immediately.

Police seized two cars, then obtained search warrants before unlocking the
trunks on police property. A dozen undercover officers and five trained
dogs boarded the ferry. They patrolled the car deck but not the upper decks
where passengers were, he added.

Deborah Dykes, a spokeswoman for the provincial-government-owned B.C. Ferry
Corp., which operates the West Coast fleet, said the police provided notice
that they would carry out the drug search.

Police said there is a pattern of drug traffickers using the ferry system
to transport marijuana, so it makes sense to clamp down at terminals and
the ferries.

Although using dogs on ferries seems a novel way to look for illicit drugs,
"it's no different than us walking down the street and smelling marijuana
emanating from a house," Staff Sgt. Bruce said.