Pubdate: Fri, 06 May 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: Maurice Bridge Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.) CANADIAN CUSTOMS OFFICER SECOND TO CLAIM COERCION Canadian customs officer Altaf Merali, in U.S. custody in Seattle after being accused of crossing the border at Blaine with 100 kilos of marijuana in his vehicle, is the second border guard in eight months to claim he was coerced by criminals into betraying his position of trust. Merali, 37, who faces the possibility of 40 years in jail and a $2-million fine, told U.S. officials he did it because Indo-Canadian gangsters in Surrey had threatened his family. His claim echoes that of Cory Whitfield, 35, an eight-year veteran of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency who was arrested Sept. 13, 2004, when he tried to smuggle 243 kilos of marijuana across the border at Aldergrove. Whitfield, a Point Roberts resident with a wife and two children who worked as an agent at Vancouver airport, claimed he was the "fall guy" in an alleged trafficking scheme centred in Surrey and said that if he talked, he would be a "dead man." He identified his Surrey connection as a man named John, and said John and another man used compromising photographs showing him in situations involving drugs and a sexual encounter to force him to work for them. SFU professor Douglas Ross, who teaches international security studies, believes border staff are at risk of being pressured to cooperate with criminals. "Whether it's triads or Hells Angels or Indo-Canadian gangs or whoever, they're all going to sooner or later hit on this idea, so there's got to be some well-established and credible support for our border security enforcement and immigration enforcement people," he said. "As the border gets tighter and the volume of narcotics flowing into the U.S. may be more and more constrained, the price is going to go up, and the amount that is going to be dangled before Canadian personnel for bribes is going to be going up and up too, and that's going to get real tough for a lot of people to resist." In Ottawa, Canadian Border Services Agency representative Helen Leslie said CBSA employees operate under a code of conduct that requires them to report to their supervisor any criminal approach. Lower Mainland police said Thursday there is no current investigation into Surrey criminals blackmailing border-services personnel to force them to transport drugs to the U.S. Const. Randall Wong, media-relations officer for B.C.'s integrated border enforcement team, was skeptical of Merali's claim. "I think it's one of those situations where it's easy to come up with an excuse after you've been caught," Wong said. "We have to allow the U.S. investigators to look at validating what he has to say first of all -- what information he's going to offer, what he's going to tell them. "Then, if they request our assistance in looking into this, to either add credibility to it or say, no, this isn't remotely credible at all, then and only then, is probably when an investigation comes. "We don't know of any specific group that is targeting border officers to do this." Emily Langlie, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney's office in Seattle, said Thursday the judge who imposed the mandatory five-year minimum sentence on Whitfield felt the Gulf War veteran had "failed to provide government investigators with all truthful information" about the offence, although he did not specifically address the blackmail claim. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom