A Canadian citizen is facing federal charges in the U.S. after allegedly trying to smuggle nearly a thousand pounds of methamphetamine into Canada through the Port-Huron-Sarnia crossing last week.
The commercial vehicle bust was one of two made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on Sept. 11, with the other netting more than half a ton of cocaine and resulting in the detainment of its driver, an Indian national.
According to a press release from CBP, officers, drug sniffing dogs and Immmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) personnel at the Port Huron border station searched a Canada-bound commercial vehicle and found more than 400 bags of meth inside weighing 937 pounds.
According to an affidavit from HSI special agent Andrew Erber, the truck and trailer, both with Ontario plates, were spotted parked next to another truck with U.S. plates in a Memphis, MI., gas station parking lot just after noon.
While the doors on both vehicles remained open, the observing agent said two people “appeared to be moving items between the trailers.”
The Ontario vehicle, now with a blue bolt security seal on the trailer door, was then followed to the Blue Water Bridge border crossing, where it was stopped. A subsequent search uncovered “numerous resealable plastic bags containing opaque-colored crystals,” which field-tested positive for methamphetamine.
The driver, who had a cut blue bolt security seal in his pants pocket and a bolt cutter in the cab of the truck, was detained and taken to St. Clair County Jail.
The drugs and vehicle were seized, and CBP said “the driver, a Canadian citizen, faces federal prosecution,” according to CBP.
Officers also followed the other vehicle and detained its driver, whose nationality is not known.
The HSI wants to charge both with possession with intent and conspiring to distribute “500 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of Methamphetamine.”
In Erber’s experience, the location of the transfer, in this case a public commercial area, and the way it was stored in the Canadian trailer, is indicative of trafficking.
“Couriers will utilize packing boxes and garbage bags to facilitate the quick transfer of large amounts of narcotics between vehicles. This allows couriers to avoid a lengthy process of concealing and comingling the narcotics into the legitimate merchandise,” he wrote.
National Post has contacted Global Affairs Canada to confirm a Canadian citizen is being held in custody.
The other drug interception occurred at the Detroit-Windsor crossing, where CBP officers found “several white bricks of a white powdery substance concealed within multiple boxes and two duffel bags” in a commercial rig also destined for Canada. The bricks, weighing 1,047 pounds, were later confirmed to be cocaine.
CBP said the driver, a citizen of India, will also be charged federally.
Both cases remain under investigation by HSI, whose acting special agent in charge, Matthew Stentz, said his office will “continue to work closely with our federal, state, local and Canadian partners to stop the flow of illicit narcotics and provide for our common safety on both sides of the border.”
According to CBP data, the agency has seized 3,500 pounds of cocaine at the northern border as of the end of July, over 1,100 more than it captured in all of 2024. Meanwhile, just over 260 pounds of methamphetamine have been seized so far this year, already eclipsing the 2024 mark before the latest hefty seizure at Port Huron.
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