News stories tagged with "smuggling"

(04/20/12) When black bear hunters head back into the woods this fall, they'll face new regulations that require them to document any parts of the animal that they plan to sell.

The new law went into effect this year. It's designed to help state and Federal officials crack down on black bear poaching.

It's still legal for hunters in New York to sell bear parts for use in Asian medicine and cooking, but the trade will be much more closely monitored.

Brian Mann has our story. more

(12/27/10) Congressman Bill Owens is one of a group of lawmakers working on a law designed to slow drug trafficking from Canada into the U.S.
A bill passed by both houses of Congress calls on the Office of National Drug Control Policy to craft a multi-agency and international strategy to tighten up on drug smugglers without hurting tourism and other commercial traffic across the northern border.
Martha Foley has more. more

(04/10/09) Last week, the Center for Public Integrity released an exhaustive investigation on the confluence of illegal tobacco, drugs, and organized crime on the Mohawk reservations on the St. Lawrence River. Yesterday we spoke with the report's author.

Today, the Mohawks' side of things. Chiefs of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe near Massena say Canada and the United States are raising cigarette taxes without considering historic tribal rights to trade tobacco. Chief Jim Ransom says the author of the Center for Public Integrity report didn't even request an interview with tribal chiefs. The Mohawks have endured a reputation as smugglers even before tobacco companies worked with some natives to traffic untaxed cigarettes into Canada in the 1990s. This year's surprise hit film, Frozen River, has brought Akwesasne's reputation to the big screen and the nation. Chief Ransom told David Sommerstein he condemns the drug trafficking and crime that happens in Akwesasne. But he says the characterization ignores the history of oppression and environmental degradation brought on the Mohawks.

(04/09/09) A new report details the billion dollar trafficking of untaxed cigarettes into Canada from the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation near Massena. The investigation by the Center for Public Integrity documented 5 to 10 unlicensed tobacco factories in Akwesasne and on the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal.

Smugglers carry cigarettes across the Canadian border and sell them in Ontario and Quebec for $20 a carton. A legally taxed carton costs $80 to $90. The Canadian government estimates it is losing $1.6 billion a year in taxes while health care costs associated with smoking are rising. William Marsden of the Montreal Gazette reported the story. He told David Sommerstein the tobacco smuggling has attracted more organized crime and drugs to an already porous region of the U.S.-Canada border.

(08/13/08) A film about smuggling illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River is drawing rave reviews in its first run of screenings. Frozen River tells the story of two women, one a Mohawk from Akwesasne, who are driven by poverty and dire circumstances to smuggle a Pakistani woman and her baby across the US-Canada border. David Edelstein, who writes reviews for NPR's Fresh Air, calls the film "gripping stuff." Kenneth Turan said on Morning Edition, "Frozen River will restore your faith in American independent film." The movie won the Grand Jury Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival. David Sommerstein caught up with Courtney Hunt by phone earlier this week. She says she knows the North Country because her husband is from Malone. She says it was women smugglers who really attracted her to the subject matter of Frozen River.

(02/26/08) A newspaper in Ottawa is reporting this week that illegal cigarette smuggling across the US Canada border is booming. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on Homeland Security, critics say illegal border crossings have returned to levels not seen since the 1990s. In January alone, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized over 72,000 cartons of cigarettes. Brian Mann has details.

(07/18/06) If you're among the thousands of people making a splash in the St. Lawrence River this summer, the Coast Guard wants you. Its "Waterway Watch" program enlists river goers to keep their eyes peeled for suspicious activity - the kind of things a drug smuggler or potential terrorist might do. David Sommerstein went to a "training session" in Alexandria Bay and filed this report.

(07/18/06) Among the people most likely to see suspicious activity on the river are members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Formed to patrol America's waters at the beginning of World War 2, the Auxiliary has more than 30,000 volunteers nationwide, more than 1000 across New York. After the Waterway Watch press conference, one volunteer gave his higher-up a tour of spots in the Thousand Islands that used to be popular for smuggling and could be again. David Sommerstein produced this Heard Up North.

(10/17/05) Civilian border watchers and their critics gathered on the Vermont border with Canada over the weekend. Between 6 and 10 volunteers for the Minuteman Project monitored the border in the Newport, Jay, and Troy areas. The group says it wants to draw attention to gaps in border security. Protestors had hoped to attract 100 people to the Derby Line green. Organizer Leah Siegel of Burlington told the Associated Press the demonstration was to oppose what she called the Minutemens' "rascist agenda". The Minutemen say they're coming to Massena this coming weekend. As David Sommerstein reports, the border patrol is downplaying their arrival.

(07/23/04) The maze of islands and St. Lawrence River channels along the St. Regis Reservation near Massena have given the Akwesasne Mohawk community a reputation for smuggling. In the 30s, alcohol came across a mostly porous border with Canada by boat and automobile. In the 1990s the contraband was cigarettes. Around 2000, it was illegal aliens. Today, smugglers favor hydroponic marijuana from Canada. Mohawk tribal police work closely with law enforcement in the U.S. and Canada to stem the tide of illegal border crossings. Yet the tribal police receive no money from Washington for their efforts - even as border security funding rises in response to international terrorism. As David Sommerstein reports, Mohawk chiefs are trying to change that.