Police create smuggling hotline for truckers

VANCOUVER — The RCMP in southern B.C. have set up a hotline that allows truckers to tip off police of cross-border drug smuggling activity.

According to the Vancouver Province newspaper, the (1-888-598-4602) features services in English and Punjabi.

Cpl. Norm Massie of the RCMP E Division Border Integrity Unit told the newspaper the hotline is designed to allow truckers who know of “compromised colleagues, and drivers who may themselves have been approached to run drugs, to call anonymously.”

Massie said in the interview that the trucking industry itself isn’t the problem, but is being “preyed on” by organized crime. “[Trucking] appears to be their next opportunity.”

The concern for law enforcement is not necessarily large trucking companies, but smaller fleets and owner-ops.

B.C. Trucking Association chair Dietmar Krause agrees. He also said the call-in number will be useful.

In 2004, customs officers seized 269 kilograms of cocaine in the Pacific Highway District. The total dropped to 179 kg in 2005, then jumped to 261.5 kg in the first six months of 2006. Overall, the number of vehicle-based drug seizures in the Pacific Region has jumped 51 percent since 2001, according to the Province.

— from the The Vancouver Province