Hard Candy-Hard Time: Drug Seizures

Secretly stashed in a transport truck hauling lettuce and lemons, stowed in the hidden panel of an elderly couple's car, buried in a mail shipment of children's toys.

Sneaky drug smugglers have tried every trick of the trade to move cocaine, marijuana, opium, heroin, ecstasy and most other narcotics across the border into Canada -- using everything from hollowed-out hockey sticks and bottles of booze to a wheelchair and commercial hot dog stand to hide their stash.

In the last two years, Canadian border guards confiscated drugs worth more than $750 million at land, air and sea crossings, according to internal documents from the Canada Border Services Agency's Strategic Intelligence Analysis division obtained by Sun Media under Access to Information. While the total number of seizures rose from 728 to 855 in 2007, the street value of confiscated contraband actually fell from $455 million in 2006 to $296 million last year.

At Toronto's Pearson International Airport -- Canada's No. 1 portal for drug smugglers -- innovative importers were nabbed trying to stash opium in chocolate bar wrappers and Iranian carpets last year. Marijuana was hidden in granola bars or Jamaican coffee, heroin concealed in false-bottom suitcases and liquid cocaine was stored in a dozen cans of beer one Peruvian passenger claimed as his personal exemption.

The documents show the nation's international mail centres, marine ports and land border crossings were also hubs for illicit entries last year.

SECRET PANELSOne elderly couple in their 70s was caught crossing the Ambassador Bridge with 9 kg of marijuana stuffed inside a false compartment in the rear seat of their vehicle. Another bust found a Bulgarian national trying to smuggle in pot mixed with a truckload of carrots and beets."They're very creative, using modified vehicles and secret panels, and all kinds of methods," said Ron Moran, national president of the Customs Excise Union representing border guards. "In spite of that, officers are really good at developing the ability to catch things."Drug detection dogs and intelligence networks assist CBSA officers to nab illicit drugs at air, land and water ports, he said.According to one internal report, dated August 2007 called the CBSA National Drug Assessment, the United Kingdom ranks highest as the country of "origin or transit" for drug seizures at Canadian border points. Linked with 125 seizures, it was above the U.S., which had 79 busts. China was third with 71 and India fourth with 68. Thailand, Jamaica and the Netherlands were also named major source countries on a long list that included Afghanistan, Pakistan, Poland and Haiti.The same report says smugglers are trafficking drugs into Canada through the U.S. in fewer, but larger shipments."The highway commercial stream poses the greatest threat of all modes/streams for large-scale cocaine smuggling into Canada," it notes.NDP MP Brian Masse said drugs seized at the border are only the tip of the iceberg. He called for more inspections and a greater emphasis on marine ports, pointing to a growing problem of big containers of contraband arriving from overseas that face few inspections.