It was a banner year for enforcement, said officials with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), in releasing information regarding 2015 operations in southern Saskatchewan.
In southern Saskatchewan CBSA officers seized 45 undeclared firearms, a 30 per cent increase over the previous year’s 33 guns. In fact, in one instance on Aug. 22, officers at the North Portal crossing, using X-ray technology, intercepted eight undeclared firearms, including a full automatic AR-15, from a trailer bound for Alaska. In addition, the number of suspected child pornography seizures across southern Saskatchewan, also rose significantly from just one in 2014 to
five last year.
CBSA officers denied entry to a total of 504 travellers at North Portal and Estevan Highway, and nearby remote border crossings for a variety of reasons, including criminality ranging from impaired driving to grand theft.
On Sept. 3 at the Regway border crossing, officers refused entry to a U.S. man who had convictions for aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
CBSA officers also saw a fair share of incidents while screening for dangerous goods and people at Canada’s front line.
Other examples included a Jan. 18 incident at North Portal where CBSA officers seized 147 overcapacity ammunition magazines from a Kentucky man bound for Alaska. The man had initially declared only 15 of them, so he was issued a $1,000 vehicle penalty and elected to return to the United States.
Officers at Regway, seized currency valued at nearly C$115,700 from a North Dakota man on Feb. 28. The man was able to prove the money belonged to him, but paid a $2,500 penalty because he failed to declare it.
On Oct. 18, CBSA officers at North Portal intercepted a North Dakota man who had driven to the border. Officers saw several empty beer cans strewn throughout his vehicle, so they arrested the man after he admitted to consuming liquor and then failing a subsequent breathalyzer test; RCMP officers from the Estevan detachment were called to take the man
into custody.
Other Quick Facts:
*Canada Border Services Agency officers processed more than 536,000 travellers in southern Saskatchewan alone. They were travelling in 189,000 cars and 149,000 commercial trucks.
*While screening travellers entering Canada, CBSA officers executed 229 total seizure actions of various goods.
“If there is one thing Saskatchewan residents should know about CBSA, it is that we are serious about protecting our communities. Each and every day, our officers use their specialized training, contraband detecting tools, and instincts to single out dangerous people and goods while maintaining a free flow of travel,” said Kim Scoville, regional director general for the Prairie Region for the Canada Border
Services Agency.
