Pubdate: Fri, 26 Apr 2002
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2002 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://www.seattletimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Gene Johnson, The Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

ZEROING IN ON BORDER POT SMUGGLERS

BLAINE, Whatcom County - From the window of a U.S. Customs Service 
helicopter, the man in charge of White House drug policy surveys a section 
of the world's longest open border, from the sparkling green waters of 
Boundary Bay to the clear-cut ridges of the Cascade foothills.

Marijuana smugglers are increasingly likely to turn to these areas as the 
government beefs up its staffing at traditional border crossings as part of 
the war on terrorism, he said.

The man, John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control 
policy, is making it a priority to stop them.

Marijuana - especially the high-potency pot grown in the hydroponic indoor 
gardens of British Columbia - is a far greater danger, and far more 
addictive, than most Americans realize, he said.

Walters was in Blaine yesterday, the largest northern point of entry west 
of Detroit, for briefings with a bevy of law-enforcement agents, including 
some from the U.S. Border Patrol, the Immigration and Nationalization 
Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Whatcom County Sheriff's 
Office.

Customs has about 190 full-time employees working the border in Washington 
and is scheduled to receive 81 more, plus two trained in handling drug dogs.

Drug seizures have increased markedly along the Washington border in recent 
years. In fiscal 2001, 7,582 pounds of marijuana were seized at the border 
in Blaine - nearly twice as much as the year before.

Walters said he wanted to learn what law-enforcement agencies are doing in 
the Northwest and to see from the air the terrain and other obstacles they 
face. The helicopter's pilot, Mitch Pribble, was eager to show him.

As the helicopter took off from Bellingham International Airport, Pribble 
pointed to scores of boats docked at one of the area's many marinas. 
Imagine, he said, trying to determine which are legitimate pleasure craft 
and which are being used to run drugs. Banking the chopper and heading 
inland, he pointed to Lake Whatcom, where a float plane from Canada had 
recently been caught landing with 120 pounds of marijuana.

Farther east, over the foothills of the Cascade Range, smugglers have 
started using snowmobiles to ferry drugs across the border, he said.

Still, most of the marijuana coming south and cocaine going north crosses 
at regular border crossings - much of it in large commercial trucks often 
outfitted with fake floors or walls.

"It used to be unheard of to get a 100-pound load. Now a 500-pound load is 
not unheard of," Pribble said.

In the winter, one truck stopped at the border had 34 hockey bags totaling 
1,475 pounds of pot mixed in with its legitimate cargo, cases of Foster's 
beer, said Roy Hoffman, the agent in charge of Customs in Blaine.

Technology, including X-ray machines and drug-residue swabs, has helped 
increase the number of busts, authorities said. Thirty-two cameras have 
monitored the border between Washington and Canada for about the last year 
and a half, and authorities have also placed motion-sensor devices in 
remote areas.

Still, having so many drug busts puts a strain on local law enforcement, 
Whatcom County Sheriff Dale Brandland said. "My jail's full," with 220 
people in a facility fit for 148, he said, adding the overcrowding was due 
to drug prosecutions.

Local judges and politicians are starting to talk about easing up on people 
convicted of marijuana charges, the sheriff said. Walters replied: "I 
regret to hear that. ... I will tell you that during this administration we 
are not going to give up."
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MAP posted-by: Beth