DRUG SMUGGLING IS UP ACROSS U.S.-CANADA BORDER

BERKSHIRE, Vt. (AP) -- From a farm field about 10 feet from the Canadian
border, State Police Sgt. Tom Hango looks through an apple orchard at cars
on a back road in Quebec.

The rolling farmland separated into two countries by a slash in the trees
is called "apple alley" by drug smugglers.

Protecting the border is the job of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service, which includes the Border Patrol, and the U.S. Customs Service.

But since Sept. 11, Hango and other Vermont troopers have been making a
habit of driving there, especially at night, looking for anything out of
place. Hango is not deterred by the odds against finding anything.

"We'll do what we can to protect our state and our country," he said.

Hango is one of countless state, provincial and local law enforcement
officials on both sides of the U.S-Canadian border who have been paying
closer attention since the terrorist attacks.

No terrorist-or terrorism-related arrests have been announced, but there
have been other payoffs. The number of illegal border crossings is down
sharply, and drug seizures and arrests are way up.

From October to April, the number of illegal border-crossers dropped 34
percent compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service. The agency says the drop occurred
on both the Canadian and Mexican borders.

Heightened vigilance is believed to be at least partly responsible.

"There is definitely an increased, visible presence on the border," said
immigration spokeswoman Amy Otten. "That word gets out among the people who
might try to get through illegally. But we really don't know because we
aren't talking to people who aren't coming."

Smugglers undoubtedly drew lessons from the case of Lucia Garofalo, a
Montreal resident arrested at Beecher Falls in December 1999. Authorities
originally suspected her of playing a role in a foiled plot to blow up the
Los Angeles airport as 2000 dawned, but changed their minds and released
her in spring 2002.

Officials believe increased vigilance also helps explain the surge in drug
arrests on the border, but, again, no one can say for sure.