NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. - A drug ring that smuggled marijuana and ecstasy pills from Canada into the United States via border crossings in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area was dismantled Tuesday in a police operation that netted 23 arrests, a federal agency said.
The suspects were hit with a variety of drug charges, including possession with intent to distribute controlled substances.
The investigation, begun more than a year ago by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had already triggered the arrests of 21 suspected drug smugglers and four major drug suppliers, said Lev Kubiak, acting special agent in charge of the agency's office of investigations in Buffalo.
The drugs were being smuggled across the border for distribution in western New York, he said.
A Canadian woman suspected of supplying the drugs was arrested Monday night when she crossed into the United States at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, Kubiak said.
Another 22 suspects were picked up Tuesday in raids throughout the western New York region that led to the confiscation of guns, cash and small quantities of cocaine, marijuana and ecstasy, he said.
