Bellingham, Wash. — As part of a dramatic boost in surveillance of the Canadian border, federal customs and immigration officials on Friday dedicated the first of five planned bases for regular flights to look for drug runners and others crossing illegally.
The 69-person Bellingham Air Marine Branch will use helicopters, airplanes and high-speed boats to patrol the border. Although similar bases have policed the Mexican border for three decades, the new facility is the first on the Canadian border.
Previously, customs and immigration service aircraft have patrolled the border only sporadically, even though much of the border is in rugged and largely empty country that presents little challenge to a determined smuggler.
The new bases, which will dot the border from Washington state to upstate New York, are a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as well as ongoing smuggling of illegal aliens and drugs, including British Columbia's potent strains of marijuana.
“Smuggling is a two-way street,” said Michael Milne, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. “We've got cocaine and money going north, B.C. bud and human smuggling coming south.”
A second station in Plattsburgh, N.Y., is scheduled to open by the end of the year, Milne said, followed by bases in Michigan, Montana and North Dakota.
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