Pubdate: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 Source: Lethbridge Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2004 The Lethbridge Herald Contact: http://www.mysouthernalberta.com/leth/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/239 Author: Gerald Gauthier 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin