Pubdate: Tue, 04 Sep 2012
Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2012 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://thechronicleherald.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Paul McLeod

PATROLLING OUR COAST DAUNTING CHALLENGE

Nooks, Crannies Prime for Smuggling Drugs

Nova Scotia's vast coastline and relatively small population provide 
daunting obstacles for those policing drug and human smuggling.

Drug seizures in this province make up only a small fraction of the 
number of busts across Canada. There were just 34 drug busts in Nova 
Scotia in 2011, out of 10,307 nationally.

But while they might be fewer in number, drug busts on Nova Scotia's 
coastline can be massive in size. Seizures on land might involve 
whatever drugs can be hidden in the back of a vehicle, but busts 
along the coast can easily net millions of dollars worth of drugs, police say.

"Typically, if someone's going to go through the trouble of importing 
drugs from abroad, they're going to go for a substantial amount to 
try to make as much money as they can," said Sgt. Keith MacKinnon of 
the RCMP's drugs and organized crime awareness service in Nova Scotia.

Cocaine, marijuana and hashish are the drugs most commonly brought 
ashore, MacKinnon said. Stolen goods and counterfeit money also show up.

The shipments are almost always tied to the many organized crime 
groups in Canada and overseas, and the drugs are usually destined for 
Quebec or Ontario.

In the past five years, drug busts in Nova Scotia have ranged from 22 
to 60 per year. While the numbers fluctuate, Nova Scotia averages 
about 30 per cent of busts in Atlantic Canada.

The RCMP have just two officers dedicated to patrolling the shores of 
Nova Scotia full time. But their numbers are augmented in the summer 
months and they partner with other authorities such as the Canada 
Border Services Agency, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian 
Coast Guard.

Officials say there is no way to guess how many drug shipments slip 
through unnoticed. There are fewer busts at the Port of Halifax than 
in larger ports. More drugs were seized at the Port of Montreal in 
2009 than in all other Canadian ports combined, the federal government says.

A huge factor in Nova Scotia is the many nooks and inlets scattered 
around the sparsely populated coastline.

"There's thousands of kilometres of coastline out there," said Staff 
Sgt. Charlie Gillespie of the RCMP's border integrity unit in Nova Scotia.

"A lot of it is secluded, it's remote, so there's the potential of 
criminal activity."

Law enforcement relies heavily on tips from the public.

"The people in those communities, if they're seeing a strange boat in 
the area or a vessel with a foreign registry or small boats meeting 
with larger boats or anything along those lines, that would be 
suspicious activity in our minds," Gillespie said.

Aside from drugs, there have been just two cases of human smuggling 
in Nova Scotia in the past five years.

The first came in June 2010 when the MV Valleta arrived in Shelburne 
with 10 foreign nationals from Eastern Europe.

Then this March, the unregistered sailboat MV Tabasco 2 sank off the 
coast of Yarmouth. Five men, also Eastern Europeans, survived and 
have requested refugee status, but three other men were missing and 
presumed drowned and another died on the way to hospital.

In both cases, the vessels came to Nova Scotia from the Caribbean.

Stowaways are also a semi-regular discovery on ships arriving in Nova 
Scotia. Since April 2008, 17 stowaways have been intercepted on 
vessels docking in Halifax, according to the Canada Border Services Agency.

By comparison, four stow-aways were found in St.John's, N.L., during 
the same time period and just one in Saint John, N.B.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom