Smugglers, RCMP face off on St. Lawrence

RCMP have launched a new patrol vessel on the St. Lawrence River in an effort to outmanoeuvre smugglers moving drugs and contraband cigarettes between Canada and the U.S.

Cornwall RCMP began their patrols aboard the Simmonds, an 18-metre coast guard catamaran, in August a time when smugglers were increasingly turning to boats and personal watercraft like Sea-Doos to transport their loads across the river, saidSgt. Michael Harvey.

The smugglers' move to the water coincided with the effective closure of the Seaway International Bridge because ofa dispute between the Canadian Border Services Agency and the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory. Theagency shut down its post on Cornwall Island, in the middle of the river, for the month of June after Mohawks protested a federal decision to arm border guards. In July, a temporary border post was set up at the north end of the bridge to check all vehicles coming off Cornwall Island.

"It has had a huge impact [on the smugglers] and they have to find different ways to get the product across," Harvey said. "And it's very hard for them to use the St. Lawrence River and then have vehicles waiting in isolated areas and to recruit people to move this product."

The goal of the Simmonds is to make law enforcement more visible in the area. It can also act as a mobile base for the smaller Zodiacs that police also use. The federal government has committed to having a total of four vessels like the Simmonds on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway by April 2010.

Despite the additional resources, however, the smugglers continue make things difficult for law enforcement.

On the afternoon of Aug. 25, the Simmonds dropped anchor about 20 kilometres east of Cornwall and waited in mid-channel in plain view for nightfall. The five RCMP officers aboard hoped the smugglers would use a crossing further to the west, where two smaller Zodiac boats were waiting to catch them. The night before, the crew of the Simmonds had seized nearly half a million cigarettes and a jet-ski.

The RCMP officers estimated that even one man on a personal watercraft can transport 22 kilograms or $2 million worth of ecstasy. Contraband tobacco typically heads from the U.S. to Canada, while marijuana and ecstasy are carried in the opposite direction.

From the bridge of the Simmonds, Capt. Michael Head kept an eye on the radar.

"I can identify a target on there and we can visually look for it and see what they're doing. Some of them are just playing in circles," he said. But other times they are trying to cross the channel. The radar gives an indication of their speed and direction of movement, he added.

As dusk fell, the officers spotted two black Sea-Doos, illegally without lights, drifting out from shore, operated by people dressed in black. On either shore, cars shone their headlights into the river.

One of the RCMP Zodiac boats approached the Sea-Doos. As it turned on its siren to pull them over, they revved their motors and fled, tearing past the Simmonds, one on each side, with the Zodiac in hot pursuit.

That's when the crew of the Simmonds noticed another vessel, a large, dark motorboat, poking out of the area the jet skis appeared from on the Cornwall shoreline. The personal watercraft had been decoys to lure the Zodiac away and it worked. The motorboat glided easily toward American waters where the Simmonds could not follow.

"Smart, very smart," Head said.

Crew members agreed that the smugglers probably had everything planned out.