Fall 2002
Drug Trail
by Paul Olund
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South Pass Road, east of Everson, runs along the United States/Canada border. The area is kept under constant surveilance with two cameras installed within a quarter mile of each other. |
Drops of rain pounded onto the already wet forest floor as North Cascades National Park Ranger Hugh Dougher pulled his handgun from the holster at his hip and touched the cold metal trigger for assurance.
It was a typical day for Dougher, stuck in the forest alone. His radio was broken, he had no backup and it made him nervous to know that the two drug smugglers sitting handcuffed beside him would kill him if they had the chance.
A few miles away, on the Chilliwack trail near Highway 20 — the road running north to Ross Lake — U.S. Customs officers led four more smuggling suspects, found toting bags of marijuana down a forest trail near Ruby Creek, into the back of a law enforcement vehicle parked nearby.
The four suspects had trekked south along Ross Lake, a 30-mile stretch of water that crosses the border into Canada, near Hope, B.C. The town of 9,000 is a regular stop for drug traffickers heading south through the North Cascades.
Smugglers avoid densely populated areas and instead frequent smaller towns such as Hope to avoid detection, said Jim Delnia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police staff sergeant of the Hope Detachment.
He said marijuana grown in British Columbia — B.C. Bud — is frequently moved through less regularly patrolled areas and then south, where it is sold for up to three times the Canadian price.
A common smuggling route begins in Hope and follows a road across the border to the Hozomeen Campground along the northern tip of the North Cascades National Park. Drug runners use trails to backpack the contraband 19 miles south to Highway 20.
B.C. Bud is notorious for its high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, the mood-altering property found in marijuana. It is sold for $1,500 per pound in Canada, $3,000 in Washington and as much as $6,000 in California.
Since the B.C. strain appeared in 1990, border agents estimate that $2 billion worth of marijuana is moved from Canada to the United States each year. The marijuana grow houses, which number as many as 9,000 in Vancouver alone, can be home to as many as 100 plants. A basic grow house producing 10 plants per year can average nearly $225,000 Canadian in drug sales.
Delnia said groups like the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club and Asian gangs are mostly to blame for the increase in the cross-border marijuana trade, but the image of the marijuana smuggler is rapidly changing.
In 2000, a grandmother and granddaughter were caught with a propane tank lined with $36,490 in smuggled cash. Last January, park rangers seized Michael William Karras after a 30-mile smuggling trip on foot through the snow-covered North Cascades left him frostbitten and nearly dead.
Every day, nearly 1,500 commercial vehicles carrying food, furniture, oil and many other goods use the truck crossing near Blaine, Wash.
Even with X-ray equipment, cameras and highly trained personnel performing the searches, smugglers are still getting through, said Tyler Morgan, investigations officer for U.S. Customs in Blaine.
Morgan said criminals typically smuggle marijuana through customs in 5- to 100-pound loads to avoid detection.
"There is too much activity at ports to catch everyone," he said.
During the 2001 fiscal year, customs agents at the Blaine crossing confiscated 13,000 pounds of marijuana and more than $1.5 million in smuggled cash. The seizure of a beer truck en route to California in January accounted for more than 1,400 pounds of marijuana alone, the largest single marijuana seizure ever at the crossing.
Morgan said increased federal assistance after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks helped lead to approximately 170 arrests in 2002. Customs agents use surveillance, evidence gathering and port observation to aid enforcement.
"A typical day usually consists of sitting at trails or on boats looking for people, surveying suspects and obtaining evidence for prosecution purposes," Morgan said.
He said suspect surveillance can often lead customs agents as far south as Seattle or Portland to cash houses where drugs or money are stored.
Morgan said although the largest percentage of trafficking still occurs along major ports of entry, many smugglers are moving to more remote locations, like national parks, to avoid contact with border enforcement.
Ross Lake, a popular family recreation area, is drawing a new crowd these days — smugglers. The lake, which crosses the border between the United States and Canada, is the most widely used smuggling route in the park.
Rangers started patrolling the lake after law enforcement groups began tracking smugglers in the park five years ago, a problem Dougher said is getting worse.
Dougher, a park ranger for the past 10 years, estimates that less than 10 percent of the illegal substances coming across the 23-mile stretch of park-controlled borderland are being detected or confiscated.
"The drug problem is based on different laws in Canada and in the United States," he said. "Canadian-side laws are much more liberal."
The smugglers, who often travel through the park by powerboat, canoe, kayak, foot, snowmobile or helicopter, are becoming more difficult to find and causing greater danger to park visitors. Dougher said he is concerned that smugglers steal equipment and food from hikers and tourists and that the problem could get worse.
He said until recently he handled up to one drug bust or arrest per week, a number far above this summer’s four-arrest total. He attributed the change to new park goals designed to bring down organized groups — traffickers moving large amounts of drugs or money for organizations — instead of small-scale smugglers.
Dougher said the park’s main objective is to avoid drug busts that require M-16 rifles and SWAT gear, and to survey suspected groups until larger enforcement agencies can take over.
"If we see a suspicious person, we begin surveillance and continue until an arrest is made," he said. "The most effective way may be to wait until the suspect leaves the park before taking action."
Dougher said controlling drug activity in the park is impossible with only four full-time enforcement officers.
"We do the best we can with what we have," he said.
Chief Ranger Pete Cowan said the rangers’ job is to stop the flow of drugs in either direction — an objective that he said is becoming difficult to meet because of budget shortfalls.
"Our problems revolve around dollars and lack of staff," Cowan said.
Dougher said because of budget cuts and an increase in drug trafficking, rangers are vastly outnumbered, which compromises safety. Although he was able to safely arrest the two drug trafficking suspects alone, the possibility of an officer being injured or killed during an arrest is an unacceptable risk, he said.
"It’s a major officer safety issue," he said. "It’s against any standard in law enforcement to make an arrest like this (with multiple suspects) alone."
Although budgets have increased for many other border agencies, Cowan said the park system is operating under a budget that is severely strained.
"We have more problems to deal with now and less staff to deal with it," Cowan said. "We need more money, more staff and better communications."
In 1996, police caught potential terrorist bomber Abu Mezer entering the United States through the North Cascades. Mezer, 23, broke bail after an arrest in Whatcom County prompted his deportation to Canada. FBI investigators tracked Mezer to an apartment in Brooklyn where officials found plans to bomb a busy New York subway station. Mezer was linked to Hamas, a Middle-Eastern terrorist group.
Since then the responsibility of maintaining tighter border security in the parks has shifted from customs and border patrol agencies to the Park Service.
"Stopping drug introduction and smuggling is not the principle service of park rangers, but the role of the ranger is changing," Cowan said. "We have become an integral part of homeland security."
Dougher said because the park is not equipped to deal with high-level smuggling operations, rangers must look elsewhere for assistance.
"We work together to get the job done," Dougher said.
He said because of a growing emphasis on large-scale drug busts, enforcement focus has shifted from arresting entrepreneurs to arresting organized groups on either side of the border.
In 2000, law enforcement agencies working with the Park Service confiscated more than $1 million during a bust on organized drug-trade groups using helicopters to drop drugs in remote forest areas.
Enhanced communications and annual meetings discussing Canadian and United States’ enforcement strategies help cut down on organized drug operations, he said.
"Everyone is networked," said Art Edge, sergeant of the Northwest Regional Drug Task Force. "Whenever we have information that will benefit another enforcement group we pass it along."
Dougher said multi-agency enforcement forces many smugglers to find alternate routes of trade, but halting the flow of marijuana into the United States altogether is an impossible task.
"We either need to make the effort to successfully stop smugglers or get rid of the problem by legalizing marijuana," he said. "If we don’t put the necessary resources into stopping smugglers, it will still be a problem 10 years from now."
Senior Paul Olund studies journalism and anthropology at Western. He has previously been published in What’s Up, Whatcom Watch, AS Review, The Western Front and The Planet Magazine.