Border guards kept busy
A man who tried to smuggle cocaine into Canada by ingesting condoms filled with the drug wasn’t the only traveller of note to arrive at local borders last month.
Others who piqued border guards’ suspicions included a man suspected of trying to abduct his child, a man with suspected child pornography and a man attempting to import a 2004 Rolls Royce.
Peace Arch News reported on the alleged cocaine smuggling on Sept. 14, after Canada Border Services Agency officials announced the Sept. 7 arrest of a passenger on a northbound bus. Sixty-six cocaine-filled condoms were collected as a result of the investigation.
Failure to declare the actual purchase price of a Rolls Royce cost one traveller – a commercial importer – an additional $8,874.82.
According to Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson Faith St. John, the importer arrived at the Pacific Highway border on Sept. 11 and declared that the vehicle was worth $90,000. Investigation determined he had paid $150,000.
The car was seized and the driver detained until outstanding duties and taxes totalling $10,931.11, along with a $14,635.50 penalty, were paid.
St. John noted that if the vehicle had been properly declared at the outset, duties and taxes owed would have totalled $16,691.79.
Suspected child pornography was found on the laptop of a bus passenger who arrived at the Pacific Highway border on Sept. 16.
The traveller, a U.S. resident, was arrested and the laptop seized; both were handed over to the RCMP.
An American man travelling with his minor child was arrested at the Douglas border after guards looked further into claims that he had gotten lost and wanted to return to Washington.
Referred for a secondary examination, the man was arrested after officers learned he had been cited by a state trooper earlier that day, and had his license suspended, for driving under the influence. The trooper also apparently had concerns that the traveller was trying to take the child to Canada.
He was turned over to U.S. authorities.
Other September statistics for the Pacific Highway District ports shared by St. John included that border guards: made six firearms and weapons seizures, including rifles, large-capacity magazines and switchblades; conducted 121 seizures of narcotics, suspected child pornography and luxury vehicles; and made 12 impaired-driving arrests, 11 of which occurred at the two South Surrey ports.
In all, 1,417,555 people were processed at the Pacific Highway District’s five ports in September.
The volume represents a 15.5 per cent increase over the number of travellers seen in the same period last year.
Douglas and Pacific Highway were the country’s busiest land crossings last month.
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