MARIJUANA SMUGGLING WAY UP AT BORDER

BERKSHIRE, Vt. (AP) -- From a farm field about 10 feet from the Canadian
border, State Police Sgt. Tom Hango looks through an apple orchard at cars
on a back road in Quebec.

The rolling farmland, separated into two countries by a slash in the trees,
is "apple alley" by drug smugglers.

Protecting the border is the job of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service, which includes the Border Patrol, and the U.S. Customs Service.

But since Sept. 11, Hango and other Vermont troopers have been making a
habit of driving there, especially at night, looking for anything out of
place. Hango is not deterred by the huge odds against finding anything.

"We'd do what we can to protect our state and our country," he said.

Hango is one of countless state, provincial and local law who enforcement
officials on both sides of the U.S-Canadian border who have been paying
closer attention since the terrorist attacks.

No terrorist-or terrorism-related arrests have been announced, but there
have been other payoffs. The number of illegal border crossings is down
sharply, and drug seizures and arrests are way up.

From October to April, the number of illegal border crossers dropped 34
percent, compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the U. S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service. The agency says the drop occurred
on both the Canadian and Mexican borders.

Heightened vigilance is believed to be at least partly responsible. "There
is definitely an increased, visible presence on said the border," said
immigration spokeswoman Amy Otten. "That word gets out among the people who
might try to get through illegally. But we really don't know because we
aren't talking to people who aren't coming."

Smugglers undoubtedly drew lessons from the case of Lucia Garofalo, a
Montreal resident arrested at Beecher Falls in December 1999. Authorities
originally suspected her of playing a role in a foiled plot to blow up the
Los Angeles airport as 2000 dawned, but changed their minds and released
her in spring 2002.

Officials believe increased vigilance also helps explain the surge in drug
arrests on the border, but, again, no one can say for sure.

Between October and March, agents in the U.S. Border Patrol's Massena,
N.Y., office made 37 drug arrests, seized $4.7 million worth of marijuana,
$462,000 in cash, 13 boats and 16 vehicles, said Dick Ashlaw, the agent in
charge.

During the same period a year earlier, the Massena office had two drug
seizures.

"The bottom has dropped out of alien smuggling," Ashlaw said. "People are
just afraid to move aliens across the border."

Though Sept. 11 obviously made smuggling aliens riskier, Ashlaw said there
always have been reasons to prefer drugs.

"I can make 10 times as much money in half the time," he said. Besides, he
said, "A hockey bag full of marijuana can't testify against you in court
and you can't get charged with manslaughter for tossing it overboard."

No one knows how long the changes will last.

"We are watching to see if the trend continues, is it permanent?" Otten
said of the drop in smuggling.

"It's still too early to say."