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veggie
Reged: 07/25/04
Posts: 6107
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US-Canada drug tunnel found
07/21/05 05:47 AM
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US-Canada drug tunnel found
July 21, 2005 - theglobeandmail.com
Seattle (AP) U.S. government agents have shut down a drug-smuggling tunnel built under the Canadian border between Aldergrove, B.C., and Lynden, Wash.
Authorities had been monitoring construction of the tunnel for eight months and sealed it Wednesday, shortly after it opened, making three to five arrests in the process, a government employee, who had been briefed by local law-enforcement officials, told the Associated Press.
The exact length of the tunnel was not known. It ran from a building on the Canadian side to a house on the U.S. side, 90 metres from the border, the source said.
The Seattle Times' website reported that investigators used a machine that can "see" underground, a video-equipped robot, a drug-sniffing dog and an air horn to find it.
The tunnel was almost a metre wide and 1.5 metres high with a concrete floor, the Times reported. It had wood-beam supports, fibreglass walls, ventilation, video security and groundwater-removal systems. Several altars with flowers and pictures of saints also were found inside.
BCTV News on Global reported from Vancouver that the tunnel had been punched through the concrete floor of a Quonset hut.
Neighbours said they had suspicions about the building but were shocked to discover what is alleged to have been going on inside.
A woman who lives near the tunnel on the American side of the border said federal agents stopped her when she tried to drive home Wednesday. She said three people were arrested in the abandoned home; Border Patrol agents confirmed the arrests.
"It blows me away," Ruthie Steinfort told the Times. "We're right next to the border station."
Global News reported dozens of police including FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officers were at the scene on Wednesday.
It is not clear if Canadian police knew of the U.S. investigation.
Though the tunnel had been under construction for the past several months, Ms. Steinfort said she never heard any noise coming from the rundown property. She said she thought the home was sold about two years ago to an eastern Washington couple, but she never saw anyone set foot on the property.
Such tunnels aren't uncommon in U.S. border towns.
In March, U.S. officials found a tunnel that had been dug from a middle-class San Diego-area neighbourhood to an upscale residence in Mexico, the Times reported.
Most officials wouldn't talk about the case on Wednesday, saying a news conference and release would be made available on Thursday.
Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, declined comment, as did Michael Milne, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The RCMP could not be reached for comment.
Canadian officials estimate 1.7 million kilograms of B.C. marijuana are produced annually, with as much as 50 per cent of it smuggled to the United States at points as far east as Michigan.
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