# Marine ports a sieve: Report



## GAP (20 Jul 2011)

Marine ports a sieve: Report 
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By Jessica Murphy ,Parliamentary Bureau July 19, 2011 

OTTAWA - Criminals have smuggled drugs into Canada's ports by hiding it in everything from sofas to cat food, water chestnuts, cotton, plastic thermoses, Moroccan pottery, foot spas and bongo drums, according to a new report.

The draft government report, obtained through access to information, probes the vulnerability of Canadian marine ports to organized crime and compiles some 20 years of criminal activity in the Montreal, Vancouver and Halifax ports.

It paints a portrait of Canadian ports as a gateway for hash, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines smuggled in through shipping containers sent from Venezuela, Guyana, Turkey, Afghanistan, Mozambique, Kenya, Jamaica, with Pakistan reportedly a primary source of hash.

Drugs also move out of Canada through the ports, with reports of ecstasy, meth, and cocaine heading from here to Asia-Pacific markets.

Records of police arrests suggest counterfeit goods are also coming in, especially through Vancouver's seaport, from credit cards to cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, electronics and fake designer duds.

Quebec, meanwhile, has a reputation as Canada's hot wheels capital, with nearly 40,000 cars stolen there each year and many shipped to the Middle East and Africa through Montreal.

Smuggling isn't the only problem - cargo theft is also a concern. In one notorious 2002 Montreal case, a container with $500,000 worth of Swedish vodka went missing, leading to the arrest of seven people.

Millions in federal cash has been poured into securing the ports since the 9-11 terrorist attacks, but the report indicates little more than 3% of shipping containers coming into the ports are ever inspected.

The RCMP also told a 2006 senate committee it could only tackle some 30% of criminal activity in the port due to limited resources.

The final draft of the report, one of three commissioned last fall by Public Safety Canada to shed light on how organized crime operates in this country, is to be tabled in the fall.
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