By Cathy Logg
Herald Writer
BLAINE – Federal agents are investigating two separate incidents that occurred at the U.S.-Canadian border Wednesday.
In one, a man was arrested with $450,000 in undeclared cash. In the other, U.S. Border Patrol agents found $180,000 worth of marijuana and what is believed to be 20,000 ecstasy pills with an estimated street value of $400,000 to $600,000.
Federal inspectors at the Blaine truck crossing stopped a 35-year-old Glendale, Calif., man who had the large amount of cash with him, said Roy Hoffman, U.S. Customs Service law enforcement supervisor in Blaine. The man was arrested and booked into the Whatcom County Jail. He made an initial appearance today in U.S. District Court in Seattle. No details of that hearing were available.
Federal law requires people to declare if they are carrying more than $10,000 upon entering the country.
In a separate incident, U.S. Border Patrol agents on patrol east of Lynden Wednesday night found two large hockey bags along the border. No one was with the bags when agents seized them.
The bags contained about 60 pounds of Canadian marijuana, called “B.C. bud,” worth about $180,000 on the street, Hoffman said. The bags also contained pills believed to be ecstasy, a so-called “designer drug” that is being blamed for increasing emergency room calls due to overdoses across the country.
The seizure of the pills, weighing about 15 pounds, is the largest seizure of ecstasy Hoffman has seen in recent years, he said. The pills are sold at rave parties for $20 to $30 apiece.
“That’s real good work at the border, and it’s nice to see it’s not going to be on the streets,” he said.
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