MOHAWKS BACK PROPOSED U.S. DRUG LAW

The band council of a Mohawk reserve straddling the Canada-U.S. border
is backing a law proposed this month by a U.S. senator aimed at
disrupting lucrative smuggling operations that use the reserve to move
Canadian marijuana and Ecstasy into New York State.

Senator Charles Schumer said he decided to draft the legislation after
U.S. authorities this year disrupted a marijuana smuggling operation
worth hundreds of millions of dollars that moved Canadian-grown
contraband into the United States through the Akwesasne Mohawk
reservation.

The Democratic senator said the proposed law would add up to 10 years
to existing drug smuggling prison sentences if the drugs were moved
across an international border through a native reservation.