Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: gospodin on August 25, 2012, 04:23 am
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Thought I'd share this found it interesting,
http://www.windsorstar.com/news/national/Border+guards+told+forget+about+illegal+drug+exports/7135582/story.html
OTTAWA — Due to a lack of resources, Canadian border agents have been told to stop looking for illegal drugs leaving the country and instead focus on stopping the export of illicit nuclear material and stolen cars.
The directive, contained in an internal memo to Canada Border Service Agency managers that was obtained by Postmedia News, is unlikely to make officials in the United States and other countries very happy.
But analysts say that in an age of finite resources, the agency has decided it makes more sense to target areas where it thinks it can make a difference.
“It takes enormous resources to catch smuggled drugs,” said Eugene Oscapella, a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy.
“You’re looking for a needle in a haystack, or probably something smaller than that. And maybe this is just a nod to reality that they’re saying they can better spend their resources elsewhere.”
The Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, represents the frontline government organization for managing the flow of goods to and from the country. This includes an export program charged with preventing prohibited or illegal items from being smuggled to other countries.
At the end of June, regional CBSA managers across Canada received a memo that told them they were to focus on three priorities, namely stopping the export of illicit nuclear material and stolen vehicles, and enforcing other departments’ export bans.
This last category includes the smuggling of endangered species, hazardous waste and electronic waste.
“The success of the Export Program in all modes and all regions will be based on the performance of the regions to meet those priorities,” reads the memo.
But the memo goes on to say that because of “the limited number of resources available for export examinations, other commodities, including outbound smuggling of narcotics, unless there is an intelligence outlook, should not be undertaken.”
CBSA spokeswoman Esme Bailey said the directive reflects the government’s priorities, but that does not mean border agents will be turning a blind eye to outbound drug smuggling.
“While examination personnel should focus their limited resources on the three program priorities first this does not exclude their obligation to act upon other agency priorities, such as intercepting narcotics,” she said in an email.
“When examination personnel detect narcotics in their daily activities, their obligation to take appropriate action remains the same: intercept, seize and arrest if applicable.”
Bailey said CBSA seized more than 10,000 shipments of illegal drugs worth $1.6 billion last year, though she could not say how much of that was coming into Canada, and how much was destined for other countries.
Darryl Plecas, an expert on crime and policing at the University of the Fraser Valley, said responsibility for stopping the smuggling of drugs would generally lie with police forces, and it’s unclear how many successful interdictions CBSA has undertaken.
But he lamented the message being sent to Canadian border agents.
“It’s always disappointing to hear that they’re not able to do this or that because of limited resources,” he said, “because that’s leaving things on the table. What that memo is saying is they don’t have the capacity to respond.”
Oscapella said U.S. officials in particular will be unhappy with the policy.
“One of the criticisms of the United States was that we weren’t doing enough to stop the flow the drugs into their country,” he said.
“To the extent that people know where Canada is, this is not going to play well.”
The export program has historically faced limited resources; an internal CBSA evaluation in November 2008 found that “export programs have been operating at a minimum level” due to personnel and budgetary constraints.
“Staff interviewed for this evaluation also acknowledged the challenges associated with an under-funded program,” the report reads, “and that they are all ‘doing the best they can with what they have.’”
An internal report prepared last October shows those problems have continued.
It said there are about 53 CBSA staff dedicated to export control — a number the agency described as “very limited.”
They are responsible for targeting and examining an “overwhelming” 8,000 to 10,000 export shipments per day.
As a result, border agents have failed to stop some shipments intended for Iran’s surreptitious nuclear program.
Meanwhile, the union representing Canada’s border agents has been warning about the impact the government’s plan to slash 1,300 positions and more than $143 million from the agency’s budget over the next three years will have on services.
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This is great, Canadians are awesome. Government is more than slightly aware they depend on marijuana production as a core industry in many states.
Take British Columbia for example. I was reading some statistics on it recently.
There are about 55,000 people who work in logging, mining, oil and gas altogether. In comparison, there are 100,000 people working in agronomy, distribution/smuggling and retail for marijuana (mainly for export). In many towns, our black market is > 50% of employment for the population. This represents, at a minimum, 5% of BC's GDP.
The reason is simple: whole price sales of weed are ~$2.42 in US dollars in British Columbia, but ~$8.83 in most parts of the USA outside of places like Cali (these numbers from over 4 years ago).
So, Canadians are going to war with the DEA, they've pretty much declared open season on them, so this should be interesting! Some government officials probably got sick to death of the DEA wandered up swinging their dicks around like they owned the place :D
I think I may consume some maple syrup pancakes in celebration :)
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I think I may consume some maple syrup pancakes in celebration :)
+1 lol.
Just gave me an idea for a new vendor account; Primo Canadian Maple Syrup, made by the nicotine-stained hands of French Canadians for that genuine feel...
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Damn that's a lot of interceptions, wish they'd tell us how much was going in and how much was going out.
On a side note, Canadian maple syrup is the best goddamn maple syrup on earth.
The Quebec maple syrup is better than the stuff you get in Ontario... just sayin'.
Guru
the maritime maple syrup is where it's at
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Damn that's a lot of interceptions, wish they'd tell us how much was going in and how much was going out.
On a side note, Canadian maple syrup is the best goddamn maple syrup on earth.
The Quebec maple syrup is better than the stuff you get in Ontario... just sayin'.
Guru
the maritime maple syrup is where it's at
Sacrilège!!!
That's almost as bad as lacing up wearing a Maple Leafs' sweater...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkJzV3x9Rd0