Posted on 12/08/2003 10:04:21 PM PST by quidnunc
Havre, Mont. – The "Ghost of Sin Ojos" is an illusive figure known all too well to the Border Patrol agents who prowl the rolling plains here under the big Montana sky, a shadowy visitor dressed in black with no eyes who moves unseen over a strip of land along the Canadian border known as the "Hi-Line."
"I've never personally seen the ghost," said Border Patrol Senior Agent Larry D. Shields as he guided his four-wheel-drive vehicle along a dirt path near a barbed-wire fence that separates the United States and Canada. "But there's no doubt he's out here."
There's also no doubt that the ghost has company, an elusive and growing number of drug smugglers, crossing from Canada into the United States — in trucks and cars, on snowmobiles and horseback, in airplanes and on foot — carrying a mountain of illicit drugs, including a new and potent hydroponically grown Canadian marijuana known as "BC bud."
Using night-vision optics and global-positioning systems to navigate the desolate and often-rugged terrain, the smugglers seek to fulfill a growing demand in the United States for drugs — particularly the high-grade marijuana that sells for up to $6,000 a pound — 10 times the price of Mexican pot.
Illicit drugs such as BC bud have become a billion-dollar industry for Canadian smugglers, and their spread into the United States was inevitable, law-enforcement authorities say.
"Canada has increasingly become a source country for drugs to the United States; there's no question of that," said Carl A. Eklund, who heads the Border Patrol's Colville, Wash., station, describing the principal exports as BC bud, high-purity heroin and precursor chemicals — used to produce synthetic drugs, primarily methamphetamine.
"With regard to BC bud, a number of organized-crime groups in Canada have been identified as suppliers, including outlaw motorcycle clubs and Vietnamese gangs, but some of those involved are simply entrepreneurs, working out of their basements."
BC bud, whose moniker derives from its origin, British Columbia, has a tetrahydrocannabinol potency rating of 20 percent to 30 percent, compared with an average of 2 percent to 5 percent for marijuana produced elsewhere. That accounts for its high cost.
The U.S. demand for Canada's growing supply of illicit drugs and no apparent shortage of smugglers has prompted some members of Congress to ask the federal government to reimburse states and municipalities for the multimillion dollar costs of prosecuting those arrested by federal authorities at the northern border.
Separate bills offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Rick Larsen, both Washington Democrats, would authorize $28 million a year. The bills are pending in committee.
"We can't keep sticking economically stressed local communities with the cost of prosecuting federal crimes," Mrs. Cantwell said recently. "The federal government should pay its fair share to keep border communities safe."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
CANADA.com: "KHADR ADMITS GETTING AL-QAIDA ARMS TRAINING Canadian citizen held by the U.S. military calls on Ottawa to help win release of his brother, accused of killing an American soldier" by Mike Blanchfield, The Ottawa Citizen (December 2, 2003) (Read More...)
WorldNetDaily.com: "TERRORIST BASE SOUTH OF BORDER" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "At this stage the growing danger is that of militant Islam penetrating Mexico, a country with an increasing Muslim community, including Muslim converts. Some of them have ties to the Mexican community and to illegal immigrants' smugglers operating in American states bordering Mexico, especially those with connections in the greater Los Angeles area and other major cities.") (December 1, 2003) (Read More...)
This didn't "just happen", and it isn't a "suddenly growing phenomenon"..
Canadian border drug smuggling has been going on for years now, and the list of corrupt government officials from local to fed is mind-boggling.
As is the list of people whose lives have been ruined if not lost trying to fight the smugglers and their cronies.
The only amazing thing is that the perps and their comrades in crime have managed to keep it so quiet.
An occassional article like this one comes out acting like this is some newly birthed problem..
It is not.
People along the border either ignore it, protest weakly and quietly, get paid off, threatened, hurt or murdered.
It is very, very seldom the anti-drug side gets a "win", and when they do, it is treated as an "isolated incident".
This from a long time ND resident that still visits ND, MN, MT every year or two.
This is NOT just a Montana problem. It is pervasive, and includes ND and Minnesota.
Wanna see how a REAL Drugs and Prostitution ring is run? Try Minnesota.
"Circuits" from one small MN city to the next run throughout the state, with as many as 20-25 cities to a circuit and no prostitute stays in one place for more than a week.
Those prostitutes also act as "horses" or carriers for drugs along that same circuit.
There are at least 100 "runs" of this sort throughout MN and WI area serving the tourist market and the Great Lakes ports.
ONE LAST THING!!!
With the signing of the new Medicare Drugs Plan, re-importing of prescription drugs from Canada will be banned.
Although there was NO reported instances of "bad" drugs ever coming from Canada, you can guarantee that such drugs and reports of drug deaths from illegally smuggled prescription drugs will be making headlines in YOUR LOCALITY, wherever that may be.
That's because the smuggling of prescription drugs will now become a black-market business.
Simply smuggling prescription drugs from Canada will not produce a satisfactory profit margin, so those drugs will be "cut" with everything from flour to arsenic and chemical waste. (heavy metals, etc.)
Don't just take my word for it, print this out and post it on your refrigerator.
The death toll will begin within a year of the ban taking effect.
I'm not advocating we shut down our borders because of this "emergine problem", I'm saying we as a country should be pooling our resources more wisely to start clamping down on what could eventually be another 9/11.
The War On Drugs has been a lost cause from the word "go", why Democrats feel that if they throw money on the problem, it will just go away, just boggles my mind, because thats the mentality of politicians, particularly Democrats these days.
Every so often there's an article I read in the Billings Gazette of someone stopped at the border because they were caught with marijuana or some other illegal drug in their possession, then they get commuted back to Canada to wait in line to face charges. Meanwhile that criminal just slips out of the system and goes back to what he/she was doing before.
The judicial system in this country and in Canada are both a farce, the War On Drugs is a scam and a failure, it's time to straighten out the judicial system in this country and legalize marijuana to the point it's out of the control of the dealers and smugglers and into the control of the government and manufacturers. This is the only way the border problem will be solved.
I too, have seen this go on for decades.
Too bad we're not running the country.. ;o)
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