PROPOSED SMUGGLING LAW FINDS SUPPORT

(CNS) 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 pot into the U.S. through Akwesasne.

The Democratic senator said the proposed law, dubbed the Cross Border
Reservation Drug Trafficking Sentencing Enhancement Act of 2009,
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.

Akwesasne is 100 kilometres west of Montreal, straddling the Ontario,
Quebec and New York State borders.

The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, which governs the Canadian side of
the reserve, said it supports Schumer's proposed law.

"It is a welcome measure and we hope that the harsher sentence should
discourage anyone from utilizing our community as a conduit for drug
trafficking," band council spokesman Brendan White said.

The U.S. side of the reservation falls under the jurisdiction of the
St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, which could not be reached for comment.