ECONOMICS LESSON DURING DRUG TRIAL

A jury at a Regina trial got a lesson in the economics of drug
smuggling from a man who says he was Daren Wayne Smith's courier,
taking truckloads of pot to the U.S. and returning on occasion with
bags of cocaine.

"He (Smith) told me basically the reason why (the exchange) . . .
Marijuana from B.C. is worth a lot more in the States than it is in
B.C. because there's so much of it here," Logan Sebastian Green
testified Wednesday. "And cocaine from the States is worth a lot more
in B.C. than it is in the States. So they would swap what they have
and triple their money or something like that," he said.

And according to Green, Smith had lots of money. He said Smith's
three-cubic-foot house safe "was basically overflowing. You couldn't
put anymore in there."

Smith, 40, of Abbotsford, B.C., is being tried on seven charges,
including exporting marijuana, trafficking and possessing proceeds of crime.

Green told the seven-woman, five-man jury he had been forced to drop
out of school because he couldn't afford it when Smith approached him
at a family Christmas dinner in 2001 and asked if he wanted to join
him on a business trip. "You can make some good money," Smith
promised, according to Green.

In January 2002, Green made the first of about 10 trips into the U.S.
with hockey bags packed with marijuana, court heard. He said the
drugs were picked up from a storage locker in Abbotsford, B.C.,
loaded in vans or SUVs rented by Smith, driven to Saskatchewan via
the Trans-Canada Highway, and taken into the U.S. at an illegal entry
point south of Lake Alma. The drugs were unloaded in Billings, Mont.,
or Seattle, Wash. He said Smith paid him anywhere from $3,000 to
about $15,000 depending on the trip. When RCMP raided Green's house
in June 2002, they found $13,000 cash in a safe

Green said he once overheard a conversation between Smith and a large
Ukrainian man named "Nick" who "looks kind of like a power lifter."
Nick was interested in buying Smith's drug route for about $250,000,
Green testified. "Daren wasn't interested in selling it," he added.

Green said the trips were largely indistinguishable, but he recalled
one from January 2002 when he had an accident near the illegal
crossing. Earlier witnesses from that area told of towing a young
man's disabled vehicle to Regina for $600 cash. Green said when he
eventually got back to B.C., Smith took the suitcase Green had
retrieved from the U.S. Inside were about 12 kilograms of cocaine
bricks, Green testified.

He said Smith once joined him on a trip to the same area, when Green
exchanged marijuana for cocaine while Smith waited in the Lake Alma
bar. An employee of the bar recalled Smith buying rounds of drinks.

By June 2002, Green wanted out and began training Paul Allan Noyce,
who testified earlier this week. Green said he made one run with
Noyce, then Noyce went alone on another trip. Noyce was stopped by
authorities south of Lake Alma on June 20, 2002. Inside the van,
rented by Smith, was 390 pounds of marijuana allegedly worth $1-million.

RCMP were already gathering evidence about Smith, but the discovery
of the drugs prompted a raid two days later on his house where a
suitcase filled with $568,170 Cdn and $111,920 US was found.

The trial continues today with Green's cross-examination.