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.
Marijuana was the top seized drug, making up more than 41,600 of the total 42,000 pounds of drugs. It grew 1,106% from the 3,450 pounds of pot found in 2019. Methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl, and heroin busts were also made.
CBP Buffalo Field Office Director Rose Brophy told reporters at a press conference in Buffalo Thursday morning that the overproduction of marijuana in Canada combined with the high value of pot on the East Coast, which is estimated to be $3,500 per pound, were leading factors for the surge.
Officers arrested 319 people in connection with smuggling crimes, which include the illegal movement across international borders of drugs, people, currency, ammunition, firearms, explosives, and other items. Ammunition seizures jumped from 1,550 last year to more than 2,200 this year. Guns and explosives were also increasingly found — 112 in 2019 compared to 142 this year.
“I don’t see it stopping,” Brophy said.
The U.S.-Canada border remains closed to nonessential travel. Drugs have been found inside furniture shipments, mulch, and other items. The pot busts that took place in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic were each well over 1 ton.
Commercial traffic has not been affected by the travel suspension, and the amount of trade coming through the Buffalo region has not declined, Brophy said.
CBP officers work at checkpoints and mail facilities, and they are a separate federal entity from Border Patrol, whose agents work the unfenced land in between border crossings.
