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As
police closed on his vast smuggling empire
in China's Fujian province, Lai Changxing
last year made a hasty but plush escape --
grabbing a first class seat on the next
plane to Canada. There, after entering the
country as a ``tourist,'' the criminal
kingpin plunked down $1.8 million for a
luxury home in British Columbia and was back
in business. No one knows where fugitive
Boston mobster James J. ``Whitey''
Bulger went to ground when he vanished from
the view of law enforcement in 1995. But
Canada is a good bet.
The FBI recently issued ``Wanted'' posters
printed in French for distribution in
Quebec, where Boston's most notorious
gangster is believed to have stashed sums of
cash in safe deposit boxes. Canada is fast
gaining an international reputation as a
good place
for criminals and terrorists seeking a
permanent hideout under a new alias -- as
may be the case with Bulger -- or just a
temporary base
of operations, as with the alleged Islamic
radicals arrested in last year's
``millennium'' bomb plot against the United
States. ``Canada is almost a welcome wagon
for crime,'' said Antonio
Nicaso, a Toronto expert on organized
crime.``Here there is a much lower risk of
detention or prosecution than
in the United States or Europe.'' A
recently-declassified report by the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service indicates that
Canada is now home to more international
terrorist organizations than any other
nation. More than 50 groups, from Sri
Lanka's Tamil Tigers to the agents of the
shadowy Osama bin Laden, use Canada as a
hideout and even a staging ground for terror
attacks. The report cites a ``disturbing
trend as terrorists move from support roles,
such as fund-raising and (weapons)
procurement, to actually planning and
preparing terrorist acts from Canadian
territory.'' This week a new report on
international crime prepared by the CIA,
FBI, and other U.S. intelligence and
enforcement agencies warned that Canada has
become both a refuge for Asian mob figures
and a significant North American gateway for
Chinese mafia: ``The United States faces a
growing threat from Chinese organized crime
groups using Canada as a base from which to
conduct criminal activities
that impact our country,'' stated the report
released by the White House.
Big bucks make for an easier life on the
lam. But Canada is a soft touch even for
destitute criminals trying to lay low. James
Anthony Martin, now 52, headed to Canada
after allegedly gunning down a Harvard
student in a drug deal gone wrong in
Cambridge, Mass. The murder occurred in
1976. For nearly a quarter-century, Martin
drew welfare and other social benefits in
Montreal while following a career of armed
robbery, petty theft, and transporting
narcotics that resulted in at least 16
arrests. But authorities never seriously
probed his past even though neighbours knew
he had a ``troubled'' background in the U.S.
Geographic proximity makes Canada an obvious
bolthole for U.S. criminals. But the
country's indulgent immigration policies are
turning it into a destination of choice for
desperate characters
from around the planet. Canada's relatively
loose border controls and immigration
policies -- coupled with a long coastline
that is not heavily patrolled -- are also
making it a newly-important port of entry
for drugs and
illegal aliens whose ultimate destination is
the United States.Analysts say Canada's
lackadaisical approach to illegal
immigrants, generous social welfare
programs, and seriously underfunded law
enforcement agencies represent a more or
less open invitation to criminals.
When an Algerian with terrorist connections
was arrested entering
Washington state last December with a
trunkload of bomb materials, it made for
headlines around the world. But Ahmed Ressam
had been living in Canada since 1994,
securing welfare benefits -- and
notching up a Quebec criminal record -- even
though he'd been caught entering the country
illegally with a false French passport.
Fugitive a `tourist' Lai Changxing certainly
wasn't seeking welfare benefits when he
arrived in Canada in August 1999, describing
himself as a simple
tourist. China has a another description,
calling him the country's ``most wanted''
fugitive. Among other things, it is alleged
he corrupted thousands of officials, high
and low, with gifts of cash and women to
protect a crime ring that smuggled $6
billion worth of vehicles, crude oil,
weapons, and computers into Fujian province.
Lai's fake passport wasn't spotted when he
presented it at Vancouver's international
airport. Neither did
anyone pay attention when he paid cash for a
posh suburban home. Or when he was banned
from casinos in British Columbia for loan
sharking. Or when he partied with Asian
crime
figures near Niagara Falls, dropping as much
as $1,000,000 a night
at gaming tables. Finally, after 15 months
of apoplectic protests by Chinese officials,
Canadian authorities apprehended Lai on Nov.
23, but they haven't sent him back. The hope
was for a quick extradition, but the case
has become an international soap opera, with
Lai loudly -- if improbably -- claiming to
be a refugee not from justice but
``political persecution.'' There's little
doubt that if Lai is returned home he will
face a firing squad (14 lesser cohorts have
already been executed). And that leaves
Canada in an embarrassing situation. Ottawa
likes to boast of its unyielding stand
against capital punishment. But
officials are also desperate to combat the
country's new image as an
easy sanctuary for undesirable immigrants --
and a place where even
absurd refugee claims can stretch for years
and even decades. ``Canada doesn't want to
be a haven for criminals,'' said Irene
Arseneau, a spokesperson for the Justice
Ministry. ``We welcome immigrants, we
welcome refugees, but only when they come
through the front door.'' No one ever
checked It's not clear what door James
Anthony Martin used to enter Canada after
allegedly shooting dead a 28-year-old man in
1976. But he certainly made no attempt to
follow the straight and narrow after taking
up illegal residence in Montreal -- he was
charged with 31 crimes over 24 years, and
even served a stint in Canadian prison.
But apparently no one thought to check
whether the misbehaving American might
actually be wanted in the U.S. It took a
dogged ``cold case'' investigation by police
to finally bring Martin back to
Massachusetts last January on a murder
charge.Meanwhile, there is no proof -- but
strong suspicion -- that one of
America's most sought-after criminals,
Whitey Bulger, slipped into
Canada in 1995, skipping Boston just days
before federal indictment
on 18 counts of murder, as well as numerous
charges of extortion and
drug-running. Bulger, now 71 and suffering
from heart disease, has criminal links to a
Montreal gang, and he is thought to have
stashed unlaundered
cash in safe deposit boxes in Toronto and
Montreal. In 1987, for example, Bulger tried
to board a plane for Montreal at Boston's
Logan Airport with a bag containing an
estimated $100,000
in $100 bills. He fled the scene.
There have been at least two ``unconfirmed
sightings'' of the
Massachusetts mobster in Quebec and
Ontario.``We know he's travelled extensively
in Canada, but we are following leads all
around the world,'' said Stuart Sturm, the
FBI's legal attache to the U.S. Embassy in
Washington, stressing that the search for
Bulger is being closely co-ordinated with
Canadian
police.
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