Just miles downriver from the tourist haven that is Niagara Falls, tons of marijuana are smuggled from Canada into the United States. Not over the last few years — in the last three weeks.
Nearly 2,000 miles away from South Texas, the busiest trafficking area along the U.S.-Mexico border, Customs and Border Protection officers working in the Buffalo region of upstate New York are seeing the emergence of a new drug smuggling trend in the northern border’s busiest spot for passenger traffic.
“All told, we’re talking — in the past three weeks — over 7 tons of marijuana seized at our border, which has a street value in excess of $30 million dollars,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, J.P. Kennedy, told the Washington Examiner. “These are more akin to what they’re used to seeing on the Southwest border.”
For the third time in as many weeks, customs officers working at the Peace Bridge seized massive shipments of marijuana stowed in commercial vehicles such as 18-wheeler trucks. On June 5, officers at the Ontario-New York bridge discovered 1,800 pounds of marijuana worth $2.5 million inside a commercial truck. Days later, 1,300 pounds of marijuana was found inside another vehicle at the same bridge. On June 25, officers found more than 9,400 pounds. The single $20 million bust was the largest to ever occur on the 4,000-mile-long northern border.
An additional 3,100 pounds of marijuana were found from March 15 — around the time that the Trump administration closed all land border crossings to nonessential travelers, killing passenger traffic by 95% — through May. As a result, officers have seen fewer drug seizures, but when they do, they are seeing far larger quantities being smuggled. Federal law enforcement at the bridges are also able to pay better attention to each vehicle, especially in light of the new trend of tractor-trailers moving illicit or regulated drugs, Kennedy said.
From the beginning of March through June 27, Buffalo customs officers seized just shy of 19,000 pounds of drugs, according to Aaron Bowker, supervisory program manager and spokesman for CBP’s Buffalo Field Office. Compared to the same period last year, it is an increase of 6,145%.
Kennedy said the astronomical surge in marijuana seizures is the result of overproduction in Canada, a lack of demand within Canada, and the closed border between the two countries.
“The producer overproduced the marijuana that can be legally distributed,” said Kennedy, adding that this marijuana had a high content of THC, the psychoactive compound that gives a user the high sensation. “So they can go to the illegal channels.”
Drug trafficking organizations historically rely on the land between land ports of entry to run their loads secretly into the country and evade detection, or they use passenger vehicles to carry over smaller amounts right through ports of entry. The northern border does not have a physical barrier between the countries and relies on Border Patrol agents, who are seeing fewer illegal crossings and are able to track other suspicious activity better, such as drug or firearm smuggling. Amid the border closure to all nonessential traffic, smuggling organizations are using commercial trucks to haul larger amounts over the border, right through the “front door,” Kennedy said.
Other parts of the country also setting new records for amounts of drugs seized over the past two months. At CBP’s international mail inspection facilities in Cincinnati, officers uncovered what is the largest-ever synthetic drug shipment and largest seizure in the past year of ketamine, which is often used in sexual assault crimes. In Arizona, CBP officers at the Port of San Luis made one of the state’s largest hauls in mid-June.
Between April and May, drug seizures rose “sharply” nationwide, CBP said in a June statement. Seizures of methamphetamines and cocaine increased by more than 50%. Marijuana and fentanyl seizures also increased.
“Sometimes we may lose sight of borders, except for in times of crisis like this when we start to realize, ‘Maybe there really is something, and we need to protect our borders a bit,’” said Kennedy. “This sort of highlights the dangers we may not appreciate in more normal times.”
