{"id":64536,"date":"2020-07-30T11:36:36","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T15:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=64536"},"modified":"2020-07-30T11:36:36","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T15:36:36","slug":"boat-at-centre-of-34m-cocaine-bust-sparked-covid-19-fears-when-it-arrived-in-n-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/canada\/boat-at-centre-of-34m-cocaine-bust-sparked-covid-19-fears-when-it-arrived-in-n-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Boat at centre of $34M cocaine bust sparked COVID-19 fears when it arrived in N.S."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Boat
The Canada Border Services Agency says it found 270 kilograms of suspected cocaine onboard this sailboat, worth an estimated $33.8 million. The name of the boat, Interlude, has been covered over, and it now sits at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. (Paul Poirier\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

What started as concern about the spread of COVID-19 in a small town on Nova Scotia’s South Shore has\u00a0turned into a major $34-million drug bust.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On July 17, local store owner Tim MacIntosh received a call that a boat carrying two people had entered Lockeport harbour and needed gas.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

MacIntosh’s small store in nearby Lydgate\u00a0has gas pumps,\u00a0so he got in his truck and drove to the wharf.<\/p>\n

When he arrived and greeted the man and woman carrying gas cans, they immediately got in his truck, and he took them back to his store.<\/p>\n

MacIntosh\u00a0said they had an accent, so he asked where they were from. The man told him they were from a small town in Quebec but\u00a0had been on the water for five weeks. He said their hometown had no cases of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

“He said, ‘We should be more than safe. Nothing to worry about,'”\u00a0MacIntosh said.<\/p>\n

While the couple may not have had the\u00a0coronavirus,\u00a0they did bring another kind of trouble with them.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0next day, while the 12-metre\u00a0Northstar sailboat was docked at a yacht club in Halifax, authorities from the Canada Border Services Agency boarded the boat\u00a0and seized 270 kilograms of what they suspected was cocaine hidden throughout the vessel. The drugs, they said, were\u00a0valued at around $33.8 million.<\/p>\n

They arrested the two people on the boat, although the CBSA\u00a0didn’t\u00a0publicize the\u00a0arrests\u00a0until 11 days later\u00a0and has not named the couple or provided any other details about the investigation.<\/p>\n

Changing story<\/h2>\n

The CBSA said the vessel had originated in the Caribbean and\u00a0failed to report when it entered Canadian waters\u00a0as required.<\/p>\n

CBSA’s Yarmouth bureau had asked Jamey Nickerson, a part-time employee of the Lockeport Harbour Authority, to go to the north wharf and check the name of the boat.<\/p>\n

\"Jamey
Jamey Nickerson, who works part time with the Lockeport Harbour Authority, was asked by the CBSA to check out the boat while it was docked at a local wharf. (Yvonne Colbert\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nickerson\u00a0said when he approached the Interlude, he saw it had a crack in the hull and looked to be in rough shape. The man on it identified himself as being\u00a0from Quebec.<\/p>\n

He initially told Nickerson he’d been on the water for four\u00a0weeks and had come from “Saint Martinique” in the Caribbean. It’s not clear whether he meant the island of Martinique.<\/p>\n

The man assured Nickerson he had had no contact with others in recent weeks, but upon further questioning, acknowledged he’d been in port at Salem, Mass., three days earlier for food and fuel.<\/p>\n

Nickerson said he doesn’t know whether the couple had gone ashore there.<\/p>\n

“I was kind of annoyed with the man at this point because he had changed his story a little bit with me, and all I was really concerned about was the well-being of Lockeport citizens,” Nickerson said.<\/p>\n

Store owner had to self-isolate<\/h2>\n

Everyone entering Canada from another country must self-isolate for 14 days.<\/p>\n

Nickerson said the man told him he was going to Halifax and planned to inform customs once he was there. Nickerson said the couple was pleasant and polite and even apologized for leaving the vessel.<\/p>\n

\"Tim
Tim MacIntosh runs a small store and gas station near Lockeport, N.S. He went into self-isolation after he drove the couple from the sailboat to get gas in his truck. (Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nickerson reported the name of the vessel and what he learned back to CBSA. He asked whether the boat should be there but was told that information\u00a0could not be disclosed.<\/p>\n

He also contacted the RCMP but was given little information about what to do and ended up staying at the wharf until the boat was out of the harbour. He said\u00a0the RCMP eventually showed up after the boat left.<\/p>\n

“Maybe they didn’t spread anything because they don’t have the virus, but we have to assume and treat them as though they did, unfortunately,” Nickerson said. “Lockeport, of all towns, has done a really, really\u00a0good job of dealing with COVID-19.”<\/p>\n

Because he had had close contact with the couple, MacIntosh\u00a0went into self-isolation, where he will remain until this weekend. He had to hire someone to replace him at his store for the isolation period.<\/p>\n

Restrictions entering Canadian\u00a0waters<\/h2>\n

In an email,\u00a0CBSA spokesperson Louis-Carl Brissette-Lesage said the agency works with its law enforcement partners to actively monitor Canadian waterways for any\u00a0non-essential\u00a0cross-border activities.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the federal government\u00a0barred most foreign nationals\u00a0from entering Canada as part of its measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus \u2014 with some exceptions, such as immediate family members, temporary workers and some international students.<\/p>\n

The travel restrictions require anyone entering Canadian waters \u2014 “regardless of country of origin”\u00a0\u2014 to report to the CBSA.<\/p>\n

The agency said boaters who enter Canada without reporting\u00a0\u2014\u00a0even if just to refuel\u00a0\u2014 “may face severe penalties, including monetary penalties, seizure of their vessels and\/or criminal charges.”<\/p>\n

Brissette-Lesage said the minimum fine for failing to report is $1,000. He also noted that failure to comply with border restrictions is an offence under the Quarantine Act and could result in up to six months in prison and\/or $750,000 in fines.<\/p>\n

“Further, a person who causes a risk of imminent death or serious bodily harm to another person while willfully or recklessly contravening this act or other regulations could be liable for a fine of up to $1,000,000 or imprisonment of up to three years, or both,”\u00a0Brissette-Lesage said.<\/p>\n

He said Canadian citizens have\u00a0the right to enter the country and simply seeing a U.S.-plated vehicle or boat is not a reason to suspect someone of suspicious cross-border activity.<\/p>\n

CBSA encourages anyone with information on suspicious cross-border activities to call 1-888-502-9060.<\/p>\n

CBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  What started as concern about the spread of COVID-19 in a small town on Nova Scotia’s South Shore has\u00a0turned into a major $34-million drug bust. On July 17, local …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":64537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3539],"tags":[6566,15842,16401],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Boat-at-centre-of-34M-cocaine-bust-sparked-COVID-19-fears-when-it-arrived-in-NS-Milenio-Stadium-Canada.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64536"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}