Drugs seized are up 1,700%, guns up 200% at Michigan-Canada border

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Monday that 1,726 percent more marijuana and 227 percent more guns were seized in the past fiscal year.

The CBP said across the five international ports of entry in Michigan - including the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit Windsor Tunnel, the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie, and Detroit Metropolitan Airport - illegal shipments were stopped.

According to the CBP, the shipments were intercepted during the past fiscal year, which ended on June 30.

All told, CBP said there were 9,059 pounds of marijuana,  211 pounds of cocaine, more than 1.5 pounds of methamphetamines; and a little more than 15 pounds of fentanyl - which has the potential to kill more than three million people.

CBP said it has seized 203 more guns, up 227 percent from last year, and 5,334 rounds of ammunition. 

A total of $4.6 million in undeclared currency was seized. 

So far 225 individuals were arrested in Fiscal Year 2020 for changes including narcotics smuggling, human smuggling, firearms violations, and fraud.

"We've gone after murderers, pedophiles. all the while seizing one million pounds of drugs nationwide in 2020," said Christopher Perry, US Customs Border Protection director of operations Detroit field office. I just think the smuggling organizations with the closures of the border are getting more desperate to get illicit commodities into the US."

Perry said that in one case, a nurse deemed essential was caught with over 150 pounds of marijuana trying to enter the country during Covid restrictions.

We are told most of the illicit goods are being brought in to the US rather than being smuggled out. Perry says that's where organized crime is trying to profit. 

CBP is expecting more record numbers as the Canadian border remains closed until at least Nov. 21.

"Border security is national security," Perry said.