Cablegate: Canada Desires Move Forward On 2006 Drug Threat

VZCZCXRO4390
PP RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHQU RUEHVC
DE RUEHOT #2372/01 2201935
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 081935Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3395
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 2143

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 002372

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

PLEASES PASS TO DEPT FOR INL FOR ROBERT E. BROWN
ONDCP FOR RICHARD BAUM

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR CA
SUBJECT: CANADA DESIRES MOVE FORWARD ON 2006 DRUG THREAT
ASSESSMENT

REF: A. (A) SECSTATE 78495

B. (B) SECSTATE 67585

This cable is Sensitive But Unclassified. Note request in
Para. 2.

1. (U) Summary: In a series of recent meetings, Poloff
discussed the USG inter-agency FY 2007 certification
procedures (reftel A) and related methamphetamine production
issues (reftel B) with Department of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade's (DFAIT) Deputy Director for
International Crime and Terrorism Jennifer Irish and Policy
Advisor Mark Richardson. Irish stated GOC intentions to
revise the 2004 US-Canada Border Drug Threat Assessment by
the end of 2006, highlighted continuing U.S./Canadian
cooperation on cross-border intelligence sharing as
continuing evidence of Canada's commitment to tackling the
drug problem and noted Canada's work toward voluntary
reporting of legitimate pre-cursor chemical usage. End
Summary.

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Canada To Revise the 2004 Drug Threat Assessment
--------------------------------------------- ---

2. (SBU) Having begun discussions about revising the 2004
Drug Threat Assessment during her April trip to Washington,
Irish restated Canada's commitment to updating the document
this year. DFAIT will coordinate an inter-agency process to
produce a drug-focused report separate from the Organized
Crime Threat Assessment that is being written under the
Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). Work on the Drug
Threat Assessment update is beginning this summer. While
acknowledging the importance of a narcotics segment in the
Organized Crime Threat Assessment, Irish emphasized that it
should not substitute for an updated Drug Threat Assessment.
She pointed to the inherent value of the inter-agency
Canadian process as well as that of working with INL
counterparts to produce the 2004 Assessment as justification
for the 2006 update. Canada prefers that the scope remain
broad, echoing the last report, and requests Washington's
feedback concerning administration of the project,
particularly who will be responsible for coordinating the two
countries' drafts. (NOTE: In 2004, it was Canada's
responsibility, although there was no formal understanding
whether this job would rotate. END NOTE) REQUEST: Post
requests the name of the INL person who will be the point of
contact for this project. END REQUEST.

----------------------------------------
Canada Takes Aim at Pre-Cursors and MDMA
----------------------------------------

3. (SBU) Cross border cooperation, including persistent and
fluid intelligence sharing between the RCMP and DEA,
continues to produce seizures of illicit drugs, including
those derived from synthetics, as well as associated illegal
unreported currency both inland and at the American-Canadian
border. In April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
agents in Sumas, Washington were alerted to an individual
entering the U.S. from Canada transporting 11.65 kilos of
Ecstasy. The following month, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol
(CBP) arrested a Canadian citizen traveling from Vancouver to
San Francisco with 65.8 kilos of MDMA powder, 77.3 kilos of
marijuana, 7.5 kilos of MDMA tablets and 10.6 kilos of Valium
tablets. The RCMP has expanded its investigative clandestine
lab groups that work in major cities and requested training
from U.S. authorities on clan lab handling and cleanup.

4. (SBU) In addition to cooperative cross-border activity,
Canadian law enforcement continues to be active domestically,
QCanadian law enforcement continues to be active domestically,
making several large chemical precursor, meth and MDMA
seizures that showed no explicit indication of targeting the
U.S. market. In April at the Vancouver sea port, the Canada
Border Security Agency (CBSA) seized 6,000 kilos of MDP2P and
1,000 kilos of ephedrine from a shipping container
originating in China. Like the U.S., Canada is experiencing
an easterly creep of its chemical drug problem and associated
underground laboratories, many of which are run by Asian
groups and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs). Evidence of this
trend is found in a March raid in Toronto and a June bust in
a tourist area of southwestern Ontario. In March 2006,
Canadian law enforcement made the first-ever seizure of an
"addiction" (for personal use) methamphetamine lab in
Toronto. The two U.S. citizen suspects had rented a hotel
room and acquired the requisite chemicals. The lab was not
yet operational and no finished product was seized. In June,

OTTAWA 00002372 002 OF 002

authorities seized the largest methamphetamine lab in
Ontario's history, netting 35 kilos of methamphetamine and 25
kilos of ephedrine. One Canadian and one Mexican citizen
were arrested, raising concerns about an increasing number of
meth "production" (for distribution and sale purposes)
facilities in Canada.

--------------------------------------------- -------------
Voluntary Reporting of Legitimate Precursor Use -- Not Yet
--------------------------------------------- -------------

5. (SBU) Richardson stated that, subsequent to Canada's
co-sponsorship of the CND resolution urging reporting of
legitimate use of pre-cursor chemicals, Health Canada is the
competent authority responsible for implementing a systematic
annual reporting scheme. Noting that the INCB had not yet
made any requests for estimates of certain precursor
chemicals for legitimate requirements, he indicated that
Health Canada's Office of Controlled Substances plans to have
a tracking and reporting system in place by years' end that
will systematize an ongoing yearly submission of this type of
material.

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