Agents Seize $4 Million Marijuana Stash at Border

Grand Forks/Associated Press ^ | April 22, 2005 | A. P.

[Choose Ye This Day]

INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. - Two people were charged with drug violations after Border Patrol agents seized nearly 827 pounds of marijuana worth more than $4 million along the U.S.-Canadian border.

Officials said it was the largest such confiscation along the Minnesota border.

Gail Darwin, 62, who owns a house in the area, was charged with two counts of conspiracy to possess and import a controlled substance. Joseph Heater, 65, a Canadian who owns a house on the other side of the border, was charged with two counts of possessing and importing a controlled substance.

Authorities arrested the pair Sunday after stopping Heater as he drove away from Darwin's house pulling a trailer filled with the marijuana.

Agents seized hydroponically grown B.C. Bud, a "high-grade marijuana that's very expensive," said Lonnie Schweitzer, assistant chief of the Border Patrol's regional office in Grand Forks.

According to Schweitzer and a criminal complaint filed in Koochiching County District Court, Border Patrol officers began watching both houses after noticing sled tracks between them last month. Heater flew to St. Paul on April 4, rented the SUV in Duluth and later was seen back at his Canadian house.

[NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961]

Mike,

Thanks for our service. Yes, smuggling drugs, while were in a "war on drugs", makes one an enemy combatant. If the person is a US citizen then they are a traitor.

Right now we are losing, big time, the war on drugs because we're scared of the ACLU types which have tied our hands. You start shooting smugglers and siezing the homes of casual users and you'll end the drug war-on our terms.

Stay safe Mike.