$6 Million Worth Of Cannabis Seized At New York-Canada Border

A 45-12 months-previous Canadian man acquired busted at the border final week hauling tens of millions of dollars worth of marijuana.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection nabbed the suspect last Wednesday on Peace Bridge, a crossing that connects Buffalo, New York to Fort Erie, Ontario. The man was driving a industrial tractor trailer, and he knowledgeable the officers that he was delivering a shipment containing articles of cement.

After Customs and Border officers referred the automobile for further inspection, they discovered a dozen wooden pallets containing plenty of vacuum sealed packages of pot. The entire quantity of cargo: 1,342 kilograms—or about 2,959 pounds, for these of us here in the states.

In response to the Customs and Border Protection, the street value of the marijuana runs at more than $6 million.

“Since travel restrictions began on the border, we now have continued to see criminal organizations attempt to exploit perceived vulnerabilities, particularly in the commercial atmosphere,” mentioned Port Director Jennifer De La O in a press launch. “I am extraordinarily happy with our CBP officers who have remained vigilant and enforcement targeted throughout these unprecedented occasions. Their selfless efforts have yet again led to a powerful seizure of narcotics preventing these medicine from getting into our communities.”

The Buffalo field office of the CBP has had a busy past a number of months intercepting such shipments on the border. In keeping with the agency, the workplace has made “over 1,500 narcotic seizures totaling more than 23,500 pounds” from October 1, 2019 by July 23. The workplace “covers 16 ports of entry all through New York State,” in line with the CBP.

The Canadian outlet CBC mentioned that the 45-12 months-previous Canadian citizen “was not allowed to enter the U.S. and CBP says he was returned to Canada for additional investigation.”

Trafficking Pot During A Pandemic
Transporting such a large volume of contraband can be a hairy proposition in regular times, however it’s even dicier now amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canadian government has imposed a tight restriction on “all discretionary travel on the Canada-U.S. border,” an order that was first instituted in late March and later extended till at the very least August 21.

A Canadian nurse moonlighting as a smuggler realized that the hard approach in March.
weed mail order nursing scrubs and a lab coat, Terri Lynn Maxwell was trying to enter the United States via the Detroit Ambassador Bridge when she was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border officers, who subsequently found more than one hundred fifty pounds of marijuana in the vehicle she was driving.

Maxwell, 48, is indeed a registered nurse Amherstburg, Ontario; she even had a placard displayed from the Canada Border Services Agency denoting her role as a first responder, which might have gained her entry under the circumstances of the pandemic.

Instead, Maxwell was hit with federal prices, and is now facing as many as 20 years in prison. The U.S. government did not take kindly of the ruse, blasting Maxwell for exploiting a public well being disaster.

“At a time when health care professionals are working extra time to maintain us safe, it’s really shameful that anybody would exploit their standing as a nurse to smuggle any kind of drug into our nation,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider mentioned at the time.