Pubdate: Mon, 11 May 2015
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Kim Bolan
Page: A7

Special Report/Day 2

THE ART OF THE INSPECTION

CBSA uses information collected before ships even arrive here to 
decide which containers should get a closer look

Sitting inside a large-scale imaging machine at Deltaport, a Canada 
Border Services agent carefully examines the computer screen in front 
of her. The cargo is billed as barrels of mango pulp inside a 
shipping container that has just arrived on a foreign vessel.

She zooms in and moves the image around to check the consistency in 
each stack of barrels. And she examines the walls and floor of the 
container itself in her search for contraband.

Seeing nothing amiss, she radios the all clear, allowing the 
container to be trucked away.

The process takes less than two minutes.

This machine led to the discovery of 109 kilograms of cocaine 
concealed inside the roof of a container, Mike Hryciuk tells a 
Vancouver Sun team on a recent tour of Deltaport - a terminal at the 
Roberts Bank superport next to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal.

Hryciuk, the CBSA's chief of waterfront operations, enthusiastically 
describes the unique setup at Deltaport, which provides the CBSA with 
permanent space for its operations.

"It's hugely beneficial because Deltaport is the largest container 
terminal port in Canada. We are able to keep our large-scale imaging 
equipment here. We have dedicated exam space for conducting the 
imagining, conducting exams," he says.

CBSA also has a downtown Vancouver office where teams with 
responsibility for other port properties are based. They move the 
region's second imaging machine around the port as needed.

More than 1.5 million containers arrive at four terminals within Port 
Metro Vancouver every year and the CBSA examines only 50,000 of them 
- - less than four per cent.

Exams can include the large X-ray-like imaging machine, a full 
"de-stuff" of the container at the container examination facility in 
Burnaby or a "tailgate exam, which is opening the doors and having a 
look at the load, maybe climbing the load," Hryciuk explains.

"We also conduct export exams for goods and commodities leaving Canada."

While the number checked seems small, Hryciuk says, "we examine 100 
per cent of the high-risk containers."

Local CBSA officers acquire intelligence about every vessel destined 
for Port Metro Vancouver from the National Targeting Centre in Ottawa.

"As the ship is en route to Canada, we get additional information and 
data and that's used to target for contraband. As well, en route, we 
get information about 96 hours out about the crew and the vessel. So 
then we can conduct risk assessments on the crew, the vessel, the 
routings and things like that," Hryciuk says.

If drugs are detected hidden inside, they're seized and turned over 
to the RCMP to carry on the investigation.

Insp. Mike Carlson heads the National Port Enforcement Team in Metro 
Vancouver, made up of 13 officers from the RCMP, Vancouver police, 
Delta police and the CBSA.

"We continue on with the investigation and hopefully identify where 
the products come from and individuals that are responsible for the 
importation and where the product is going to if we can get to that 
point," Carlson says in an interview at Deltaport.

Nearby, hundreds of workers go about their business at the bustling 
terminal. Thousands of red, green, brown and blue containers are 
loaded on and off a ship with giant gantry cranes. Forklifts move 
other containers into stacks in the middle of the port, where they 
can sit for days while awaiting transport by train or truck.

Word can spread quickly around the docks if contraband is found, 
making it difficult for police to carry on a covert investigation, 
such as following a container to its destination to identify the 
people behind an illicit shipment.

"We'll take every step possible to advance the investigation as far 
as possible. And if it means to follow a commodity, then we'll 
certainly do that," Carlson says. "We have to ensure that we're going 
to have a good likelihood of being able to do that without suspicion 
being raised to the fact we are aware that it is here."

Carlson said those involved in international shipping of drugs are 
not going to do it just once.

"It is too much work. They are going to set up processes so they can 
do it multiple times and we want to be able to stop it. So rather 
than stopping it once, we conduct our investigation in such a fashion 
that we can stop an individual organization from ever doing it again. 
That's why the individual investigations are long-term," he says.

Even with all the specialized tools, Hryciuk says his best resource 
is his officers.

"We are responsible for seeing what's going on around the docks and 
some of our most significant seizures have occurred from seeing 
unusual activity," he says.

"That's the responsibility of CBSA employees basically to ensure the 
safety and security of Canadians - to keep bad goods, bad people, 
contraband off the streets, out of schools so that it doesn't affect 
their families and other families."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom