Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jul 2005
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2005, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Camille Bains, Canadian Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

U.S. SET TO SEAL OFF SMUGGLING TUNNEL

VANCOUVER -- Officials in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration are 
working to seal off a tunnel that was constructed to smuggle marijuana from 
British Columbia.

Joe Giuliano, deputy chief of the Border Patrol sector in Blaine, Wash., 
said yesterday that military and law enforcement personnel are discussing 
the use of a hardening foam that would be injected into the tunnel to close 
it off.

"Digging through that will be a heck of a lot harder than digging through 
the dirt in the first place," Mr. Giuliano said.

"I'm pretty confident that it's down for the count once that stuff goes in."

U.S. officials had been monitoring the construction of the 110-metre 
passageway since earlier this year after Canadian border personnel alerted 
them to the possibility that a tunnel was being dug between the two countries.

After a joint investigation, three Surrey men were charged in connection 
with the tunnel, which is equipped with electricity, ventilation, wood 
supports and ribbed steel bars to reinforce it.

Construction was finished earlier this month, and U.S. police made the 
arrests last week after a load of pot was sneaked across the border.

The tunnel stretched from a metal hut in Langley, B.C., to a point 
underneath a house in Lynden, Wash., where police had installed cameras and 
microphones.

Mr. Giuliano said he has almost three times more staff since the Sept. 11, 
2001, terrorist attacks on the United Sates, to be the eyes and ears at the 
border crossing in Blaine.

Conservative MP Mark Warawa, who toured the Langley property where the 
elaborate tunnel began, said the Canadian government needs to follow the 
U.S. example and increase the number of RCMP officers between border points.

"Without adequate resources, we can't adequately protect Canada," Mr. 
Warawa said.

Cocaine from the United States, often exchanged for B.C. marijuana, could 
have made its way back to Canada had the tunnel not been discovered, he said.

"These people are not sneaking in jugs of milk."

Some of the 160 border crossings between the two countries have only one 
officer on patrol, so more Mounties need to monitor between crossings, Mr. 
Warawa said.

RCMP Superintendant. Bill Ard, in charge of border integrity, said that 
unlike the United States, Canada has no border patrol.

However, after Sept. 11, Ottawa financed 24 Mounties across Canada to work 
in the Integrated Border Enforcement Teams that exchange information with 
U.S. officials, Supt. Ard said.

"They are working as a team except we're not in the same office," he said.

"Because of limited resources, the approach we're taking is targeting areas 
of the border that we think are being exploited because of whatever 
intelligence we have, or we're targeting organized crime groups."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom