MORE DRUGS AT BORDER

United States customs officers are seizing more drugs at the
International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie, although why depends on who
you ask.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a recent report that
Asian organized crime groups are increasingly targeting northern
points of entry, including Sault Ste. Marie, Port Huron and Detroit,
to smuggle in the potent strain of indoor-grown marijuana known as
B.C. Bud, along with a smaller level of MDMA, or Ecstasy.

"Hydroponic marijuana is highly sought after by drug traffickers
because it has a higher THC content and is that much more potent,"
said DEA supervisory special agent Andy Eiseman from Detroit on Friday.

Eiseman could not say how the DEA has determined organized crime is
using northern border points with greater frequenc y. However, he
added that "when we're talking about drug trafficking operations,
they'll use any means necessary ... Any way drug traffickers find a
way to funnel their drugs in, they'll find."

From Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., the chief of the local Customs and
Border Protection field office disputes criminals are targeting the
International Bridge.

"I don't think that's the case at all," said Douglas
Price.

Rather, Price says he believes they're encountering more because
they're staffing more. He pointed to a dramatic bulking up of the CBP
in the last 18 months -- 25 officers have been added, bringing
staffing levels to "more than 100," Price said, though for security
reasons he couldn't say exactly how much.

"Their attention to detail is improving and they're also making the
other guys work harder to achieve the same results."

He said he is "not authorized to give exact figures." The DEA also
does not break seizures down by border point, but by state. In 2009,
306 kilograms of cocaine were seized in all of Michigan, 20 kg of
heroin, 5 kilograms of methamphetamines, 3,500 kg of marijuana and 53
kg of MDMA.

Price said that while marijuana continues to be the most common
narcotic intercepted, they're also seeing more people in unlawful
possession of prescription medication.

He said Oxycontin, or "hillbilly heroin" as it's sometimes called, is
the most popular prescription medication.

"There's a wide variety of prescription drugs that cause a euphoric
effect, but oxy is definitely increasing, it seems, coming across ...
I'm not sure who's at fault, but it's coming across, and a lot of
people don't have prescriptions for it, and they're not supposed to
have it."

Although Price said officers encounter prescription drugs coming in to
and going out of Canada, he noted the Ontario Sault is a bigger city,
and speculated that "with different pharmacists, maybe it is easier to
get it (on this side)."

He questioned the notion organized crime is behind the smuggling. "I
think there are groups of people trying to get into the United States,
but is it organized crime? ... Every seizure we get as far as
narcotics of any kind is a different circumstance."

The last he heard, Oxycontin "is going for $20 a pill. You get a
prescription bottle for 400 pills -- that's a large sum of money."

The issue of drugs at the border has become politicized in Michigan,
where the mid-term Congressional election campaign is in full swing.
State representatives Gary McDowell, who is running to fill the
Congress seat soon to be vacated by Bart Stupak, blasted a Tea Party
contender, Dan Benishek, for questioning the "authority" of the
federal government in the war on drugs. A portion of a stump speech
Benishek gave over the summer is posted on YouTube, and McDowell used
it as a talking point in a recent press release, calling his position
on drugs "not only insulting, but dangerous to the men and woman in
law enforcement who work every day to keep drugs away from our kids
and off the streets."

"The federal resources devoted to drug trafficking along the
U.S.-Canadian border pale in comparison to those focused on our
southern border. Both the United States and Canada have an interest in
curbing the flow of drugs across the border, so as efforts continue to
make the border more secure, addressing the increase in drug
trafficking has to be a priority," McDowell said in an e-mail.

In Sault Ste. Marie, "we haven't seen the same volume of illegal
narcotics such as cocaine, as they see at crossings near larger
cities. But as they beef up enforcement in those locations, I am
concerned it will just drive more drug traffic across the
International Bridge. That is why the United States needs to develop a
comprehensive strategy for addressing drug trafficking along the
world's longest international border, focused on helping law
enforcement agencies in border communities deal with this problem."