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Drug smugglers hitch rides on Canada Steamship Lines

by Judi McLeod

July 9, 2004

The July 2 drug bust on a vessel owned by the shipping empire run by Prime Minister Paul Martin’s three sons was not the first.

a street value up to $14 million in cocaine was found on The Sheila ann, docked in the Nova Scotia port of Sydney just days after the federal election. The Sheila ann, named after the Prime Minister’s wife, belongs to CSL International, a sister company of Canada Steamship Lines Inc., the multi-million dollar shipping empire Martin was forced to hand over to his sons last year.

International drug smugglers used the cargo ship to transport what it is now believed to be $14 million worth of cocaine across the atlantic.

Police made it clear that Martin’s relatives and employees were not involved in any way.

authorities deduced that organized criminals, unbeknownst to the ship’s crew, planted the 83 kilograms of cocaine inside the vessel while it was berthed in Venezuela earlier in the week.

The drugs were found stashed in two duffel bags inside the Sheila ann’s sea chest, a section of the ship where ocean water enters and cools the engine.

Drug-sniffing dogs found drugs for personal use on five CSL ships last summer.

CSL had 26 RCMP officers with six dogs raid one of its ships. The Mounties later confiscated $250,000 worth of drugs from a CSL sailor who had returned home.

The President George Bush-initiated War on Drugs has driven Canadian shipowners into expensive dog searches of their U.S.-bound ships, as a measure of avoiding stiff fines. Fines, beginning at $1 million, are part of new regulations implemented Jan. 1.

When ships found with drugs aboard are impounded, court appearances can cost owners up to $25,000 a day in expenses during sometimes lengthy investigations.

The new rules do not differentiate between drugs for personal use by sailors or large amounts intended for trafficking.

Last fall, The Lake Carriers association spent $250,000 on a program, which uses DETECT DRUGS Searches by specially trained dogs. Belgian Malinois, which are similar to German shepherds and Doberman pinschers, excel at the job.

CLCa President George Miller says the three unions support the program on 105 vessels represented.

The $250,000 outlay, he says, "is a lot better than one of our ships being fined."

"We’re part of the war on drugs because we’re a foreign nation shipping into the U.S. It’s costly for us but it isn’t something we can disagree with."
Ship bottoms are not the only option available to international drug smugglers. Border chief Chris argue says it’s not unusual to find drugs in the wing of an aircraft.

Officials seized illegal drugs hidden in the wing of a commercial aircraft that landed this week at the Vancouver International airport. One brick of hashish weighing 369 grams and two bricks of cocaine weighing 706 grams, with all three bricks taped to the inside of the aircraft’s fuel panel in the port side wing were confiscated. The Boeing 767 that arrived in Vancouver on a flight from Sydney, australia had made one stop in Honolulu.

The World FactBook identifies Canada as an "illicit producer of cannabis for the domestic drug market and export to U.S.; use of hydroponics technology permits growers to plant large quantities of high quality marijuana indoors; transit point for heroine and cocaine entering the U.S. market; vulnerable to narcotics money laundering because of its mature financial services sector."

Meanwhile, the controversial Martin family shipping empire, whose vessels sail under the more convenient flags of foreign countries, could be an unwitting "transit point for heroine and cocaine entering the U.S. market".

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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