Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jul 2005
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Camille Bains, Canadian Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

U.S. OFFICIALS LOOKING TO SEAL OFF TUNNEL

Hardening Foam Could Be Injected Into The 100-Metre Underground Passageway

VANCOUVER (CP) - Officials in the United States' Drug Enforcement 
Administration are working to permanently seal off a tunnel that was 
constructed to smuggle marijuana from British Columbia.

Joe Giuliano, deputy chief of Border Patrol in Blaine, Wash., said Monday 
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," 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 tunnel 
since earlier this year after Canadian border personnel alerted them to the 
possibility that a tunnel was being dug between the two countries.

A joint investigation revealed that three Surrey men -- Francis Devandra 
Raj, 30, Timothy Woo, 34, and Johnathan Valenzuela, 27 -- allegedly built 
the tunnel equipped with electricity, ventilation, wood supports and ribbed 
steel bars to reinforce it.

Construction was finished earlier this month, and U.S. police arrested the 
men last week after they sneaked across a load of pot.

The tunnel stretched from a metal hut in Aldergrove to a point underneath 
the living room of a house in Lynden, Wash., where police had installed 
cameras and microphones.

Giuliano said he has almost three times the staff since the 9/11 terrorist 
attacks on the United States to be the eyes and ears at the border crossing 
in Blaine.

Conservative MP Mark Warawa, who toured the 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. More 
cocaine from the U.S., 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 have only one officer on patrol so more 
Mounties need to monitor between crossings, Warawa said.

RCMP Supt. Bill Ard said that unlike in the U.S., where borders are 
patrolled, the RCMP does no such job. However, after 9/11, Ottawa funded 24 
Mounties across Canada to work in the Integrated Border Enforcement Teams 
that exchange information with U.S. officials, Ard said.

"They are working as a team except we're not in the same office," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom