DRUG LORDS `SMUGGLING HONDURANS' INTO CANADA

Hondurans and other Latin Americans are being smuggled into Canada by
Colombian drug cartels to deal drugs on the streets here, experts say.

Others are recruited by the cartels after they have crossed the border
on their own initiative, seeking a better life here, police, organized
crime experts and a members of the Latin American community say.

Hondurans, most of them refugee claimants, made up the vast majority
of the 72 drug dealers targeted this week in Project Scoop, a joint
Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster police blitz aimed at ridding
the Lower Mainland of drug dealers who are taking over parts of
communities and terrorizing residents.

Immigration and Refugee Board figures from the Vancouver office
indicate the majority of claims being made by Hondurans entering
Canada are false.

From April 1997 to March 1998, the IRB made 52 decisions on Honduran
claimants and only three were deemed to be refugees. A full 37 didn't
bother to show up for the hearings or abandoned their claims, and
Immigration is now looking for them, said Rob Johnston, head of
Immigration's Vancouver enforcement division.

From April 1998 to date, the IRB has made 61 decisions on Honduran
claimants, of whom six were deemed to be real refugees. Again, 34
never showed up for a hearing.

Honduras is now among the 10 nations whose citizens are most
frequently deported by Canada, Johnston said. Last year, 22 were
deported. Already this year, Immigration has deported 25, about half
of whom were convicted criminals, he said.

But Johnston added: ``We're dealing with criminals, not with
Hondurans. There's lots of valuable citizens of Honduran background
who are contributing members of our society.''

Despite some press reports that there were hundreds of child drug
dealers coming into Canada from Honduras, Johnston is adamant that the
figures on Honduran refugee applications indicate it isn't a major
problem.

``Of all the [250 applications] this year, seven were identified as
children and referred to the ministry for children and families,'' he
said.

Despite indications that Canada is being targeted by the Columbian
cartels, there is apparently nothing Canada can do to stop the flow of
Honduran claimants -- some of whom are legitimately seeking a haven
from persecution and human-rights abuses that have been well
documented by Amnesty International.

Still, immigration critics say the numbers make Canada look like a
patsy.

The 250 refugee claims by Hondurans this year are twice as many as
last year, immigration officials say.

But the claimants -- criminals or not -- have rights to a refugee
hearing to determine whether they are true claimants and a right to
appeals to the courts if their claims fail, Johnston said. Even if
they are convicted of drug dealing they cannot be deported after their
jail terms are served, until they have a refugee hearing and are
rejected or declared a danger to the public by Immigration Minster
Lucienne Robillard, a difficult legal process. And drug dealing is not
necessarily an offence that prevents claimants from obtaining refugee
status.

``The whole refugee program is being abused by these gangs and petty
criminals and we're just sitting ducks for it,'' said Bill Bauer, a
former member of the Immigration and Refugee Board.

``Once someone utters those magical words -- `I claim refugee status'
- -- he's safe for at least a year and a half,'' said Bauer, who is also
a former ambassador to Korea, Thailand Burma, Laos and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Bauer, who is writing a book on the abuse of Canada's refugee system,
says there is not much that can be done on the prevention side. ``The
border is wide open.''

Robillard has no plans to take steps to single out Hondurans, her
spokesman Eric Tetrault said from Ottawa.

``At this point, it's more of a security matter than an immigration
matter,'' he said, saying it the problem is one for police to solve.

``People who make refugee claims can do what they want, and that
includes committing -- crimes or being accused of committing crimes,''
he said.

Unfortunately, police say, the problem of refugee claimants pushing
drugs is bigger than law enforcement agencies can deal with and they
would like a little help from the immigration system.

Police suggest they are merely putting a finger in the dike with
Project Scoop.

``I don't believe this roundup is going to significantly affect the
supply of drugs,'' said Vancouver police Inspector Gary Greer, who
overseas police operations in the Downtown Eastside. Police say there
is no effective sentencing to deter drug dealers. Dealing carries a
maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. But in reality, sentences are
more likely to be short and often those convicted get off with a fine,
Greer said.

Nor do police have the money for operations to sweep up as many of the
drug dealers as they know about, he said.

Eduardo Aragon, of the Latin American Community Council in Vancouver,
said the community supports the raids but is frustrated that the
police are targeting the small fry while the operators of the cocaine
distribution network remain free.

``Police say they are understaffed and under-resourced to carry out a
major drug bust operation,'' said Aragon, whose council serves as an
umbrella organization for 40 different community service organizations
who help Latin American refugee and immigrants settle in Canada.

Honduran newspapers are reporting that most of the Honduran drug
dealers seeking refugee status in Canada are recruited by the
Columbian cartels while they are in Honduras, Aragon said.

The illegal refugee claimants are first smuggled into Mexico, then to
San Francisco and then into Canada, he said.

``We believe there is an organized smuggling approach to this in the
criminal community,'' agreed Johnston. ``They're getting through the
border [without notifying officials], coming downtown [to claim
refugee status at Immigration's office] and there is an organized
approach to it and the RCMP are aware of it.''

But the RCMP, too, are understaffed and underfunded.

Staff Sergeant Glen Rockwell, head of the the RCMP's immigration
division, says the force is aware of the problem and is trying to
arrest the smugglers as they guide illegals across the border. ``But
we're not getting a whole lot of help. The government doesn't want to
fund us for this type of initiative.''

Some Honduran drug pushers, like those in other ethnic groups, are
also recruited by the cartels after they have arrived in Canada on
their own, Thompson said.

And some enter Canada after being harassed in the United
States.

Police sweeps forced them out of Portland, Ore., police say. Most of
those Hondurans were deported back to their own country, but some made
their way here, Greer said.

While the past few weeks have seen stories focused on Hondurans, the
cartels and other organized crime organizations from countries around
the world recruit members of every ethnic group, experts say.

````Organized crime is one of the big successes of multiculturalism,''
said John Thompson, head of the Mackenzie Institute, which researches
terrorism and organized crime.

``We've got everyone from our own Mafia and bikers and aboriginals,
who are our own problems, to the organized criminals of every people
on earth who are present in Canada.''

Thompson estimates narcotics -- including cannabis -- is a $10-billion
industry in Canada, and probably $2 billion to $3 billion in B.C.

``Vancouver is the entry point, being one of the central ports for
cocaine and heroin smuggling,'' he said.

``Vancouver is drug central for Canada,'' Greer agreed, in terms of
drugs coming in and going out of the city, and in terms of the drug
addiction problem.

And that money gives the cartels the option of buying some very
high-priced help to guide the refugee claimants through the maze of
Canada's immigration system.

``When they're picked up [by police] they claim refugee status, than
they claim welfare to subsidize their drug business, than they get a
free lawyer [from legal aid] to help them [stay in the country],''
said Bauer. Or they can simply use the big money they are making to
hire ``very good lawyers,'' and skip legal aid, he said.

Vancouver immigration lawyers bristle at any suggestion that lawyers
are knowingly helping false claimants to stay in the country.

Richard Kurland, a Vancouver lawyer who heads the Canadian Bar
Association's immigration section, says there's not enough money in it
for legal-aid lawyers to represent clients they believe are making
false claims.

``The entire legal community would become aware of it. . . . . The law
society would go after them,'' he said.

Catherine Sas, an immigration lawyer who sits on the Canadian Bar
Association's immigration section, said it's absurd to believe lawyers
are involved in the smuggling process. But refugee claimants are as
entitled to representation as people accused of crimes, she said.
``That's our job. We're not the judges, we're the advocates. That's
just the unfortunate reality. That's part of the process.''

Checked-by: Patrick Henry