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Integrated Border Enforcement Team
For many years the illegal movement of commodities and people through the unmanned portions of the International border have been dealt by individual enforcement agencies by a traditional investigative method or on a "case-by-case" basis and usually in a reactive response. Within southwest British Columbia there are over 50 federal, provincial, state, county, and municipal agencies either working along, or having an interest in the International border area between the San Juan Islands and the Cascade mountains near Manning Park. In these 150 miles, one would think that criminal activity would be remote and cross border smuggling sparse however, some cases have shown that the criminal imagination, diversity and complex nature of their organized networks have made many of these smugglers very successful.
In this current time of restructuring, the fiscal and human resource cutbacks and the ever increasing demands for the delivery of policing services from different directions we must meet the challenge of these demands within our geographic area. To do this we must be proactive in adapting our service delivery, aligning our federal and other resources, both internal and external and prioritizing our commitments in support of the community and detachment we support. By encompassing all three, we can move towards the responsibility of combatting smuggling from its source...right at the border.
As Vancouver Customs and Excise, we have envisioned the potential for growth and possibilities of increasing effectiveness with the furthering of joint partnerships and enforcement opportunities along the uncontrolled international border. Our section has expanded the federal policing service delivery to include American as well as Canadian law-enforcement agencies who share a common interest related to cross border smuggling regardless of the commodity. By meeting with various groups and identifying their needs and consulting with their unique issues thorough bimonthly "working group" meetings, the need for proactive border enforcement has been demonstrated along these key geographical areas which are known to have high smuggling activity. Most of the agencies were prepared to move ahead with such an initiative however, internally some obstacles of force policy had to be overcome. Envisioning a multi agency border enforcement team, previous working relationships that were on a file by file basis have now developed into a daily work routine. Created by this consultation has been a collective enforcement strategy known as the Integrated Border Enforcement Team or "IBET". With IBET we are not reinventing the wheel, nor creating yet another separate intelligence group of police. On the contrary, IBET's inception is focussed upon the specific geographic location as the problem rather than those criminal groups using it. By using modern policing philosophies to problem solve and proactively plan this concept, IBET has enabled partnerships and working relationships to evolve and become more effective against organized crime for all of the agency participants.
We have consulted and planned along with community residents and those agencies who's primarily role impacts upon the invisible line which police and the courts must respect, but criminals choose to ignore. Reflected throughout the consultation are the questions asked, concerns identified and comments added by representatives from numerous law-enforcement working partners along the border, all of whom agree that no longer can a single policing agency can undertake border enforcement alone. Forgotten are the historical turf wars, competing single focussed personalities and Inter-departmental egos.
The VCES satellite office in Chilliwack was the catalyst for this proactive partnership and its growth from two C&E FTE's to five, also demonstrates management support to this initiative. Now also participating on the Border Team are other members from RCMP sections such as "E" division Drug Enforcement Branch and RCMP Vancouver I&P. In addition, a Customs Inspector from the Huntingdon POE recently joined the IBET Team. Our eight- person proactive enforcement unit, partners daily with it's US counterparts from US Border Patrol at Lynden Station as well as Blaine Station. Both USBP offices have dedicated four patrol agents to work joint operations with the RCMP. Also the USBP Blaine Sector "HQ" is the US coordinating voice through the Sector Intel agent. In addition, The US Customs Service also have dedicated resources to IBET. They too have observed the demonstrated effectiveness of working together. Four agents from the office of investigations (Port squad) and three agents from the office of enforcement (ASG) complement the Team. On the Canadian side depending upon the jurisdiction working, RCMP detachments offer assets to participate with the C&E IBET Team which assist in maintaining the local focus and community interest. IBET may not be the single solution for all areas and types of cross border enforcement concerns, however it may just be the vehicle to formalize joint force operations. This certainly has proven for us to be a viable human and fiscal resource based response team for the disruption of criminal groups operating within southwest British Columbia and northwest Washington State.
The RCMP Federal Policing service delivery is a constant evolution of change impacted upon by demographics, internal restructuring, fiscal burden sharing and numerous other complex and competing priorities. Within "E" Division this "diversity" should not have us forget about the role and mandate of which the RCMP has been given by the Canadian government. Support at Branch level has been noted and the expectations are no different. In previous years the Customs and Excise enforcement focus was to target involved anti-smuggling initiatives (ASI) surrounding illegal tobacco and liquor, primarily from the regions of southwest Quebec, eastern Ontario and upper New York State. This focus was adopted and continues to be an enforcement concern here as well in Pacific Region as in many others throughout Canada. By focusing all of our enforcement efforts at this complex issue, it may leave no identified coordinating body for the unmanned border areas, to monitor the scope of illegal smuggling in between the ports of entry. As a result the individual law-enforcement detachments and other police forces of jurisdiction operated and attempted to resolve cross border criminal activity often in isolation.
In 1997, "E" Division Economic Crime Branch, as the Customs and Excise program manager, with Vancouver Customs and Excise, commenced an internal review of C&E operations throughout the division. The realignment of these C&E enforcement operations in many areas were achieved in order to continue the ASI thrust. Seeing an area which had been neglected for several years, the Chilliwack C&E office through its working relationships in the area developed an operational model for federal enforcement outside the lower mainland of Vancouver. The illegal smuggling of all commodities across the international border between Northwest Washington State and Southwest British Columbia continued to grow at an alarming rate. Despite the attempts by agencies to interdict at the Port of Entry's, criminal smugglers have themselves developed complex organized networks to move illegal contraband such as drugs, guns, pornography, liquor, tobacco, currency and migrants Undetected by law enforcement they operate around the ports, through rural farming areas, remote wilderness trails and waterways from the San Juan Islands in the west on east through to Manning Provincial Park.
We took the initiative that border problems related to smuggling were only unique to the border, and when we looked back at the pieces of legislation available to enforcement officials, the border itself suddenly became part of the solution. Immigration Act, Customs Act, Excise Act, Controlled Drug and Substances Act and the Criminal Code are the five main authorities which the Canadian enforcement component relay upon. By using all of these legislative acts and focusing our enforcement "laterally" along the border, we could be more effective. Convincing our US counterparts of looking laterally and not traditionally north and south only took the first night of "combined" enforcement to convince them that this was value added enforcement.
The RCMP C&E undertook a leadership role in this initiative by coordinating enforcement duties through several "key" individuals from each agency who were the core members of IBET. The core group members were basically the supervisors for the RCMP operations, US Border Patrol operations and US Customs operations. For issues and concerns deemed for management awareness, use of resources, sovereignty, use of force etc. were uploaded to an IBET management group. The working group meets weekly to plan ops, discuss post ops, share intelligence and offer shared assets both human and technical on an on-call basis. The management group meets every second month and consists of senior managers from all of the participating agencies and RCMP sections, to ensure each department's mandate and area of responsibility is examined by the IBET working group. Examples of effectiveness:
On April 30th, 1999 Project EBET ("E" Div.) which has been the operating base for this initiative has just concluded its six month of operation and the review of this project is currently underway. The successes achieve by this proactive joint force initiative were far beyond numerical statistics. By creating a "corridor of enforcement" officials from both sides of the border can work effectively side-by-side and respecting sovereignty.
Enforcement, or lack there of, is cyclical. Activity at the POE is directly related to activity in between the POE. If Canada Customs are doing enhanced commercial vehicle inspections at the POE, neighbouring POEs see an increased amount of commercial traffic. If numerous small autos are being detained and secondary examinations conduced, cross border smuggling in between the POEs is noticeably increased. If the IBET team is out on surveillance and interdicting smugglers with media exposure, this forces smugglers to "risk" crossing at the POEs.
The IBET philosophy is now expanding to Central BC with Kelowna Customs and Excise and though to Eastern BC with Nelson Customs and Excise using IBET as a policing model along the border.
Contact Person(s)
Cpl. PJ Thompson, Supervisor
RCMP Vancouver Customs and Excise
Border Enforcement Team
46326 Airport Road
Chilliwack, BC
V2P1A5
Phone: (604) 702-4007
Fax: (604) 702-4057
Inspector DG ( Dick) Grattan
Officer In Charge
RCMP Vancouver Customs and Excise
12992- 76th Avenue
Surrey, BC
V3W 2V6
Phone: (604) 543-4700
Fax: (604) 543-4999
