Man arrested for allegedly trying to scuba marijuana across river between Ontario and Michigan
DALE CARRUTHERS, QMI AGENCY
FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2013 04:44 PM EDT | UPDATED: TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2013 05:00 PM EDT
LONDON, Ont. — Border guards have seen it all when it comes to drug smuggling on the Canada-U.S. border near Sarnia, Ont., and Michigan. But a frogman swimming across the St. Clair River at night, towing an eight-pound bag of pot, could be a first, authorities say.
It happened Monday about 1 a.m. when a tipster called the St. Clair County dispatch to report someone swimming across the river south of Sarnia.
Surveillance camera operators honed in on the suspicious swimmer — who had a dry bag used by scuba divers in tow — and relayed his watery whereabouts to border patrol agents on the ground in Marine City, Mich.
The swimmer emerged from the water wearing a scuba suit. Border patrol agents arrested him and say they found a large watertight container holding more than 3 kg of marijuana tied to a seawall ladder.
American officials are calling the swim — a busy shipping channel, roughly one kilometre wide where the man was caught — a dangerous thing to do, especially in the dead of night.
“If there’s a freighter coming through there, there’s no way for a freighter to stop. That’s a very, very dangerous thing to do,” said Greg Grogan, a public affairs officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The Canadian man was turned over to the St. Clair County Drug Task Force.
