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<blockquote data-quote="Babagounj" data-source="post: 571337" data-attributes="member: 12952"><p>Canada border is drug war's second front</p><p><strong>More agents to fight spike in trafficking</strong></p><p></p><p>By David Crary ASSOCIATED PRESS | Sunday, July 26, 2009 </p><p></p><p>PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. | The world's longest undefended border: It's a catchy yet increasingly imprecise term for the U.S.-Canada frontier, as authorities on both sides ratchet up efforts to curb bustling traffic in illegal drugs and guns.</p><p>The U.S. Border Patrol has tripled the number of agents along the 5,500-mile stretch in recent years, with hundreds more soon to be deployed. Unmanned U.S. surveillance aircraft are being tested for use over the frontier, and video surveillance towers are going up around Buffalo and Detroit. Multi-agency, binational law enforcement teams operate in 15 regions from coast to coast.</p><p>Thousands of Mexican troops battle the cartels in a conflict that has killed more than 11,000 people since late 2006. By comparison, the scale of drug violence and trafficking in Canada is minuscule.</p><p>Yet the northern border, mostly out of the spotlight, presents its own challenges. It is hard to monitor due to its length and geography and used by a diverse array of traffickers ranging from outlaw motorcycle gangs to Asian-run drug rings.</p><p>"It's a long border, mostly very remote, very wooded, very sparsely populated," said James Burns, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent in charge of upstate New York. "It's easy to go from one side to the other without detection."</p><p>Canada supplies large quantities of marijuana to American users, including hundreds of thousands of pounds a year of lucrative, high-potency "B.C. Bud" from British Columbia. Canada also has developed rapidly into a leading supplier of ecstasy - often laced with highly addictive methamphetamine - both for U.S. and overseas markets, as crime gangs operate factory-style superlabs.</p><p>The contraband arrives by helicopter, boat and float plane, in cattle trucks, hikers' backpacks and by snowmobile. One favored smuggling passageway is the St. Regis/Akwesasne Mohawk Indian reservation straddling the St. Lawrence River along the New York-Canada border where tribal sovereignty limits access by Canadian and U.S. investigators.</p><p>Just this month, federal and state authorities in Plattsburgh, on the western shore of Lake Champlain, announced the dismantling of a purported billion-dollar marijuana smuggling ring that used the Mohawk land as a transit route into the United States.</p><p>"Operation Iron Curtain" resulted in charges against more than 45 people, from Quebec to Florida. Over the past four years, the ring smuggled about $250 million worth of high-grade, hydroponic marijuana into the United States annually, authorities said.</p><p>"It's easy to forget in these idyllic surroundings and friendly communities - and with our close relationship with our Canadian neighbors - that there are people so interested in lining their own pockets that they don't care what harm they cause others," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Grant Jaquit.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Babagounj, post: 571337, member: 12952"] Canada border is drug war's second front [B]More agents to fight spike in trafficking[/B] By David Crary ASSOCIATED PRESS | Sunday, July 26, 2009 PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. | The world's longest undefended border: It's a catchy yet increasingly imprecise term for the U.S.-Canada frontier, as authorities on both sides ratchet up efforts to curb bustling traffic in illegal drugs and guns. The U.S. Border Patrol has tripled the number of agents along the 5,500-mile stretch in recent years, with hundreds more soon to be deployed. Unmanned U.S. surveillance aircraft are being tested for use over the frontier, and video surveillance towers are going up around Buffalo and Detroit. Multi-agency, binational law enforcement teams operate in 15 regions from coast to coast. Thousands of Mexican troops battle the cartels in a conflict that has killed more than 11,000 people since late 2006. By comparison, the scale of drug violence and trafficking in Canada is minuscule. Yet the northern border, mostly out of the spotlight, presents its own challenges. It is hard to monitor due to its length and geography and used by a diverse array of traffickers ranging from outlaw motorcycle gangs to Asian-run drug rings. "It's a long border, mostly very remote, very wooded, very sparsely populated," said James Burns, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent in charge of upstate New York. "It's easy to go from one side to the other without detection." Canada supplies large quantities of marijuana to American users, including hundreds of thousands of pounds a year of lucrative, high-potency "B.C. Bud" from British Columbia. Canada also has developed rapidly into a leading supplier of ecstasy - often laced with highly addictive methamphetamine - both for U.S. and overseas markets, as crime gangs operate factory-style superlabs. The contraband arrives by helicopter, boat and float plane, in cattle trucks, hikers' backpacks and by snowmobile. One favored smuggling passageway is the St. Regis/Akwesasne Mohawk Indian reservation straddling the St. Lawrence River along the New York-Canada border where tribal sovereignty limits access by Canadian and U.S. investigators. Just this month, federal and state authorities in Plattsburgh, on the western shore of Lake Champlain, announced the dismantling of a purported billion-dollar marijuana smuggling ring that used the Mohawk land as a transit route into the United States. "Operation Iron Curtain" resulted in charges against more than 45 people, from Quebec to Florida. Over the past four years, the ring smuggled about $250 million worth of high-grade, hydroponic marijuana into the United States annually, authorities said. "It's easy to forget in these idyllic surroundings and friendly communities - and with our close relationship with our Canadian neighbors - that there are people so interested in lining their own pockets that they don't care what harm they cause others," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Grant Jaquit. [/QUOTE]
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