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  4. Swanton Border Patrol Agents Arrest 16 Aliens, Seize 178 Pounds of Marijuana at NY Checkpoints

Swanton Border Patrol Agents Arrest 16 Aliens, Seize 178 Pounds of Marijuana at NY Checkpoints

Release Date
Tue, 09/18/2018

SWANTON, V.T. –Swanton Sector conducted three separate tactical immigration checkpoints September 13-17, including two near North Hudson and one near Tupper Lake in New York. In total, the three checkpoints resulted in the arrest of 16 individuals who did not possess valid immigration status. The arrested individuals were from Mexico, Romania, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador and Malaysia.

Border Patrol agents conduct a tactical immigration checkpoint in northern New York.
Border Patrol agents conduct a tactical
immigration checkpoint in northern New York.

“Checkpoint operations are a critical tool for the enforcement of our immigration laws and enhance our border security capabilities,” said Swanton Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia.  “As part of a layered approach to border security, we use checkpoints to prevent individuals from engaging in illicit activity exploiting major routes of egress away from the border which feed into our communities in the interior of the U.S.”

One of the individuals is a citizen of the Dominican Republic without legal immigration status in the United States.  He originally falsely claimed to be a United States citizen from Puerto Rico until agents discovered he was a convicted felon from the Dominican Republic.  He is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York for false claim to citizenship under 18 USC 911.

The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York will also be prosecuting a man and woman from Romania for illegal entry under 8 USC 1325 and a man from Mexico for illegal entry after removal under 8 USC 1326.  The two Romanians illegally entered the United States from Canada on September 13 near Meridian Road in Champlain, NY.

The remaining 12 individuals were placed into removal proceedings and turned over to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations.

In addition to the immigration violations, agents made four separate marijuana seizures at the North Hudson checkpoint that netted more than 178 pounds of marijuana.  During one inspection, a subject fled the immigration checkpoint and led agents on a vehicle pursuit before stopping his vehicle near Exit 28 on I-87.  Agents discovered approximately 44 pounds of marijuana in his vehicle.  All subjects and marijuana were turned over to the New York State Police for investigation. 

Also turned over to the New York State Police was an individual who possessed cocaine, marijuana, Xanax pills, THC oil and THC wax along with several tabs of LSD.

The Swanton Sector is responsible for securing the land border between ports of entry in Vermont, New Hampshire and northeastern New York. The assistance of citizens is invaluable to their border security mission and they welcome community members to help them keep our nation’s borders safe and report suspicious activity at 1-800-689-3362.

For more on Customs and Border Protection’s mission at our nation’s ports of entry with CBP officers and along U.S. borders with Border Patrol agents, please visit the Border Security section of the CBP website.

Last Modified: Feb 03, 2021