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MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota has a new drug problem.
It goes by the name B.C. Bud. It's a highly potent form of marijuana. It's hydroponically grown in British Columbia. It has spawned a multimillion-dollar narcotics-smuggling industry in the Pacific Northwest.
And it's turning up more and more on the Minnesota-Canadian border.
"For five years, the growing and smuggling of B.C. Bud was the No. 1 enforcement priority in the Pacific Northwest, but now the problem has migrated east -- into border towns in North Dakota and Minnesota and as far as Detroit," Mike Milne, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Thursday from Seattle.
As the number of drug busts along the border has increased in recent months, amounts seized have grown, said Tim Counts, spokesman in the Twin Cities for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.
"Forty pounds of B.C. Bud used to be a large seizure," Counts said.
"But our Duluth office tells me that officials along the border are now seizing 200 pounds and up," Counts said.
Tim Peterson, coordinator for the multi-agency Boundary Waters Drug Task Force out of Virginia, said it's been in the Northland for about the past year.
"We haven't encountered any huge amounts, but we do see pounds," Peterson said.
Border officials in Minnesota and Canada are concerned as they see the traditional summer increase in recreational traffic across the border.
"The northern border is so porous, that its probably really easy to get it across," Peterson said.
They're also worried about the rising value of B.C. Bud, which fetches $3,000 a pound at the border and goes for $6,000 a pound on the street, and the recent arrest in Grand Portage of a California man who allegedly tried to smuggle more than $100,000 in cash, hidden in vacuum-sealed bags, into Canada.
Martin Sanchez Velasquez, 40, of Compton, Calif., was indicted this week on two counts of conspiracy to smuggle bulk cash. He was arrested May 24 by U.S. Customs inspectors after Canadian inspectors advised that they had denied Velasquez entry, and he was returning to Grand Portage.
Inspectors at Grand Portage noticed the strong odor of gasoline inside the van Velasquez was driving. Gasoline is sometimes used by smugglers to mask the odor of narcotics they're transporting, investigators say.
"Money laundering and drug smuggling are very connected," Milne said.
It is not known whether Velasquez had previous involvement with narcotics smuggling, Milne said. But noting the gasoline smell, Milne said, "If you have vehicles with hidden compartments, it is conceivable that narcotics could be transported in those compartments one way, and money the other way."
Source: Deluh News Tribune
Published: Jun. 26, 2004
Website:https://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/local/9018783.htm
It goes by the name B.C. Bud. It's a highly potent form of marijuana. It's hydroponically grown in British Columbia. It has spawned a multimillion-dollar narcotics-smuggling industry in the Pacific Northwest.
And it's turning up more and more on the Minnesota-Canadian border.
"For five years, the growing and smuggling of B.C. Bud was the No. 1 enforcement priority in the Pacific Northwest, but now the problem has migrated east -- into border towns in North Dakota and Minnesota and as far as Detroit," Mike Milne, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Thursday from Seattle.
As the number of drug busts along the border has increased in recent months, amounts seized have grown, said Tim Counts, spokesman in the Twin Cities for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.
"Forty pounds of B.C. Bud used to be a large seizure," Counts said.
"But our Duluth office tells me that officials along the border are now seizing 200 pounds and up," Counts said.
Tim Peterson, coordinator for the multi-agency Boundary Waters Drug Task Force out of Virginia, said it's been in the Northland for about the past year.
"We haven't encountered any huge amounts, but we do see pounds," Peterson said.
Border officials in Minnesota and Canada are concerned as they see the traditional summer increase in recreational traffic across the border.
"The northern border is so porous, that its probably really easy to get it across," Peterson said.
They're also worried about the rising value of B.C. Bud, which fetches $3,000 a pound at the border and goes for $6,000 a pound on the street, and the recent arrest in Grand Portage of a California man who allegedly tried to smuggle more than $100,000 in cash, hidden in vacuum-sealed bags, into Canada.
Martin Sanchez Velasquez, 40, of Compton, Calif., was indicted this week on two counts of conspiracy to smuggle bulk cash. He was arrested May 24 by U.S. Customs inspectors after Canadian inspectors advised that they had denied Velasquez entry, and he was returning to Grand Portage.
Inspectors at Grand Portage noticed the strong odor of gasoline inside the van Velasquez was driving. Gasoline is sometimes used by smugglers to mask the odor of narcotics they're transporting, investigators say.
"Money laundering and drug smuggling are very connected," Milne said.
It is not known whether Velasquez had previous involvement with narcotics smuggling, Milne said. But noting the gasoline smell, Milne said, "If you have vehicles with hidden compartments, it is conceivable that narcotics could be transported in those compartments one way, and money the other way."
Source: Deluh News Tribune
Published: Jun. 26, 2004
Website:https://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/local/9018783.htm
