U.S., Canada announce stepped-up effort to monitor border

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. – Top law officers of the United States and Canada announced plans Wednesday to monitor 7,065 miles of shared border and help deter the movement of terrorists and other cross-border criminals.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Canadian Solicitor General Wayne Easter said the countries are creating two new Integrated Border Enforcement Teams focusing on the border between Saskatchewan and North Dakota and Montana, and on the border between Canada and Maine.

“Terrorists and those who engage in racketeering, fraud and trafficking do not respect national borders,” Ashcroft said Wednesday during the seventh annual U.S.-Canada Cross Border Crime Forum at The Greenbrier resort.

“We cannot fight these threats separately and expect to win. We must defend our values together,” Ashcroft said.

While the forum was created to address smuggling of drugs and illegal firearms, terrorism has become a focus since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Easter said.

“Canada is not immune from terrorism,” Easter said. “This is a common threat, not just to our continent, but to our way of life.”

Stepped-up monitoring of the longest undefended border in the world is one way to inhibit terrorists’ movement, Easter said.

“We will maintain this increased level of vigilance as long as necessary,” he said. “There is always more to do.”

Last month, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested 65 people in 10 U.S. and Canadian cities as a result of an 18-month international investigation dubbed “Operation Northern Star.”

The target of the investigation was the importation into the United States of pseudoephedrine, a chemical that is an essential part of producing illegal methamphetamine. Brokers in the United States had arranged for bulk shipments of the chemical from Canada, most of it smuggled beneath legitimate products in tractor-trailer rigs.

Police seized about 14,000 pounds of the chemical, which originated from a Canadian pharmaceutical company and could have yielded about 9,000 pounds of methamphetamine. Law enforcers estimated the street value at between $36 million and $144 million.