Northern border drug influx: Seizures up nearly 1,000% near Buffalo

Drug seizures by U.S. customs officers in upstate New York spiked nearly 1,000% over the past 12 months compared to the previous year, an unusual trend for the typically quiet northern border.

The Buffalo field office of Customs and Border Protection reported a 969% jump in the seizure of all narcotics, which would have been worth tens of millions of dollars on the street. Federal law enforcement officers within the region’s 16 ports of entry with Canada and international mail processing facilities found more than 42,000 pounds of illicit or regulated drugs in fiscal year 2020, which ran from Oct. 1, 2019, through Sept. 30. A year earlier, officers found approximately 4,000 pounds of dope.