(The Associated Press circulated the following story on January 8.)
DETROIT — Trucks and trains smuggling explosives, illegal aliens, drugs and other terrorist-related cargo will be targeted under a new multi-agency effort to tighten security at the U.S.-Canadian border.
A high number of commercial vehicles haul a good deal of contraband into the United States across the Ambassador Bridge, the Windsor Tunnel and a railway tunnel every day. With the benefit of a $3 million federal grant, the Border Enforcement Security Team will provide a second layer of defense, Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans said Thursday.
The collaboration brings officers working overtime from the Detroit Police Department, U.S. Border Patrol, Drug Enforcement Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Canadian Pacific Railway police and the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority.
“We have established this team of offices to help cut the lifelines of drugs, weapons and hazardous materials that feed terrorist organizations,” Evans said.
The team is a unit of specifically trained officers who will perform numerous inspections of commercial trucks and trains traveling from Canada.
“Any time you get agencies sharing information and working together, good things are going to happen,” Evans said. “I expect that we will be catching significant violations every day that otherwise would have gone unchecked.”
Boats and passenger vehicles will be targeted only if specific intelligence offers a reasonable basis for stopping them, Evans said.
This announcement precedes a visit Friday from Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, who is to discuss border security at the Port Huron crossing.