DRUG SMUGGLING NOT TOP PRIORITY FOR BORDER AGENTS

Most of the drugs confiscated by federal agents in Montana come from
people crossing the border at legal ports of entries, which begs the
question: Do most smugglers try to sneak their wares into the United
States from Canada through these legal crossings, or are the agents
just not finding those who are crossing illegally?

The answer seems to be a little of both, according to Mike Milne, a
spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

He notes that the vast majority of people coming into the United
States do so at legal border crossings, which could be part of the
reason for the larger number of drugs confiscated there.

"For instance, on a typical day nationally, 1.1 million people are
processed through our points of entry," Milne said, adding that the
figure includes both northern and southern borders. "Those who are
coming here between the legal crossings are A) entering the U.S.
illegally, so they already have a violation there or B) are entering
illegally because they're up to no good in other ways. They're
smuggling narcotics, currency or other items.

"Are we perfect and catching everything? The answer is no. ... Are
the borders impenetrable? No. But we're making them more secure and
have more resources available now."

Those realities are reflected in statistics compiled for the Havre
sector, which covers 454 miles of the Montana-Canadian border,
according to Ramon Rivera with the border patrol's office in Washington, D.C.

At legal ports of entry in the Havre sector during fiscal year 2007,
which runs from Oct. 1, 2006, through the end of this month, agents
confiscated marijuana 20 times, methamphetamine four times, cocaine
six times, and psilocybin mushrooms, poppies and Oxycontin once each.

By comparison, during the same time frame at nonlegal points of
entry, like trails or rural roads, the agents were involved in only
four incidents involving marijuana, and one each of mushrooms and
heroin. Only one of those incidents amounted to a quantity large
enough -- almost 19 pounds -- to be considered something other than
personal use.

Havre sector spokesperson Alex Harrington said it's not just that
more people go through the legal entry points; it's also that
searching for drug smugglers isn't the border patrol's No. 1 objective.

"Our main mission is to look for illegal aliens and terrorists, and
if the people we stop do have something on them, that's good for our
agents, but it's not the main reason we stop people," Harrington said.

Confiscating small quantities of street drugs seems to be typical for
what's also happening at the legal border crossings in Montana, where
agents typically make one or two large drug busts each year.

Milne expects more smugglers will try to cross the border into
Montana in the future, since agents have been working the
Washington-Vancouver border hard in the past decade. These drug
dealers typically are well-financed, dedicated and resourceful, which
makes them a "formidable foe" for law enforcement, he said.

Since 2003, the office of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has almost
tripled the size of the force on the 4,000-mile Canadian border, from
300 to 928. Overall, that that means each person is responsible for 4.3 miles.

The Havre sector, which stretches from the eastern Montana border to
the Continental Divide, has 92 agents, or an average of about five
miles per agent. Havre generally ranks in the middle of the agent/per
mile ratio of the eight sectors along the northern border.

With all this emphasis on catching terrorists or weapons of mass
destruction, is it a success or failure of the Havre sector that it's
made only one arrest of an individual wanted for questioning in
connection with possible terrorist activities?

"They're not pounding on our door, but we are here just in case,"
Harrington said. "It only takes one terrorist, one individual with a
grudge against the United States, to come across with something on them.

"We want to make sure another 9/11 doesn't happen."