ARREST THURSDAY WERE SECOND INTERCEPTION OF BIG POT SHIPMENT IN WEEK

MALONE - Two cousins from Hogansburg were jailed Thursday after being
charged with having 30 pounds of marijuana in their car.

The arrest of [delete] 24, and [delete], 18 both of 359 McGee Road,
marked the second time in a week that a major marijuana shipment was
intercepted at a U. S. Border Patrol checkpoint near Paul Smiths in
southern Franklin County.

"They saw our checkpoint and tried to abscond," Leslie M. Lawton,
assistant chief patrol agent at Border Patrol sector headquarters in
Swanton, VT. , said.

Agents pursued their car northward, stopping their car in the town of
Duane south of the village of Malone. Members of the state police
Troop B Narcotics Enforcement Unit, Ray Brook, were called in and a
search turned up the hydroponically grown marijuana.

The highly potent marijuana sells for about $2,500 a pound in bulk,
Lt. Patrick O. Fonda, Ray Brook, said.

"That's about $75,000 retail value. If you sold it in New York City
you are probably going to get a lot more for it than if you sold it in
a rural area," Mr. Fonda said.

They were arraigned in Duane Town Court and were ordered held in
Franklin County jail, Malone, in lieu of $50,000 bail each.

A week earlier [delete] 23, and [delete] 25, both of Burns-Holden
Road, Fort Covington, were jailed after being charged with possessing
53 1/2 pounds of marijuana. It was found at the same border Patrol
checkpoint near Paul Smiths.

The arrest, and others that have taken place recently across Northern
New York, may have more to do with an increase in the number of Border
Patrol and other law enforcement officers since the terrorist attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001, than with an upsurge in drug smuggling, Ms. Lawton
said.

"We have over 150 agents now, which is not quite double to where we
were before 9-11," Ms Lawton said. "We obviously have more agents on
the road."

In addition to putting more agents on the road, Ms. Lawton said "We
have been able to run more traffic checkpoints."

A checkpoint on Route 37, Morristown, resulted in the March 29 arrest
of [delete], and [delete], both 19 and of Syracuse, by St. Lawrence
County sheriff deputies. They were charged with having 17 pounds in
their car.

Another checkpoint, on Route 11 in Jefferson County near the St.
Lawrence County line, resulted in the March 28 arrest of [delete], 21,
of Essex County hamlet of Minerva. He was charged with possessing 5
pounds of marijuana.

"It's hard to say where it is coming from. It very well could be
coming down from Canada," said Glenn MacNeill, assistant Franklin
County district attorney, in Malone.

"We are sure it is not grown locally," Mr. MacNeill said.

"It is pure speculation to say who is growing it," Lt. Fonda said.

"Hydroponic marijuana typically comes from Canada. The vast majority
of the seizures we make are hydroponic, which is not grown locally,"
Ms Lawton said.

"There are a variety of groups that find hydroponic marijuana
lucrative. So anybody who is an entrepreneur and sets up a growing
operation may make a profit," Ms. Lawton said.

Much of the marijuana is believed to be entering the United States
through the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, Lt. Fonda said.

"There is a long-standing history at the border at Akwesasne or
Hogansburg.

There are a lot of distribitors along the border. It is an area that
is conducive to being able to smuggle this stuff across without being
detected," Lt. Fonda said.

While marijuana appears to be the drug of choice of smugglers for the
moment, three Fulton men were charged recently with selling up to
300,000 Ecstasy pills they bought from a Canadian supplier. The
tablets were picked up in Massena, according to police in Oswego County.

U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested them after they
sold 956 tablets to an undercover agent.