LEGISLATORS ASK FOR FEDERAL DRUG ENFORCEMENT FUNDS

The north country's three federal legislators on Friday submitted a
formal application to bring federal drug enforcement money and
resources to four area counties.

Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. John M.
McHugh asked the Office of National Drug Control Policy to include
Franklin, St. Lawrence, Clinton and Jefferson counties as part of its
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.

The program coordinates and helps federal, state and local law
enforcement agencies disrupt the illegal drug trade. In particular for
the north country, it would target cross-border smuggling and money
laundering operations from Canada that distribute the drugs downstate
to Syracuse, Albany and ultimately New York City for wider
distribution.

The New York/New Jersey HIDTA, with its main offices in Manhattan,
includes 17 counties in New York and northeastern New Jersey. The New
York portion includes all of New York City, the two outer counties of
Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk), Westchester County, and four upstate
counties that were added in 2007: Albany, Erie, Monroe and Onondaga.

The three federal legislators said they consider the four counties
mentioned in the application as "conducive for drug smuggling." The
counties include 16 border crossings, three of which are among the 10
busiest on the northern border.

The four counties also include international airports in Watertown,
Plattsburgh, Ogdensburg and Massena among the 17 total. Three of the
counties border the St. Lawrence River, which provides international
shipping access to much of the U.S. via the Great Lakes St. Lawrence
Seaway System. And the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation straddles the
U.S-Canada border in Franklin County.

"The addition of the Clinton, Franklin, Jefferson and St. Lawrence
counties would play a critical role in reducing the flow of narcotics
throughout New York, and into the rest of the United States - a goal
on which we can all agree," the legislators wrote.