BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York Sen. Charles Schumer says he’ll work to drum up support from colleagues in other northern border states for a comprehensive plan to combat drug smuggling along the U.S.-Canadian border.

Schumer says today he’ll introduce legislation soon to require the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to devise and implement an anti-narcotics strategy similar to the one in place for the southern border. He says statistics show cocaine, heroin and marijuana seizures have increased along the U.S.-Canadian border since 2007 and that the border is now the primary gateway for Ecstasy trafficked into the United States.

Northern border agents who seized a single kilogram of heroin and cocaine in 2007 seized 18 kilograms of cocaine and 28 kilograms of heroin in 2009, U.S. Justice Department statistics show. There were 3,423 kilograms of marijuana confiscated last year, compared with 2,792 kilograms two years earlier.

While those numbers are dwarfed by seizures from the southern border, the reverse is true for Ecstasy seizures. Since 2005, agents have seized eight times the club drug at the northern border than at the southern border, taking 668 pounds from smugglers in 2009, 1,358 pounds in 2008 and 529 pounds in 2007.


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