Drug Profits Threaten Stability Opium production in Afghanistan threatens to undermine gains made at the ballot box toward uniting the country under an elected government. Production increased in nearly every measure, according to the United Nations' 2004 Afghanistan Opium Survey. This year's opium harvest rose 17 percent to 4,200 metric tons in spite of international efforts to restrict production. Bad weather and disease prevented it from exceeding the record production of 4,600 metric tons in 1999, the year before the Taliban banned new cultivation. [continues 342 words]
QUITO, Ecuador - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that Latin American counties must work together to counter drug trafficking and international terrorism. Rumsfeld, in South America for a conference of Western Hemisphere defense ministers, told reporters that he hopes to strengthen regional security agreements in the Americas aimed at stopping narcotics and terrorist organizations. The conference was to begin today. [end]
RUTLAND, VT - Vermont State Police and a number of other state agencies are helping to put together a program to train emergency workers about the dangers of methamphetamine. The drug is cheap, addictive and easy to make from legal ingredients. It also carries with it the dangers of lab explosions, poisonous gas or chemical contamination from the production process. That's why the liquor control commission, the health department and the police academy are working with state police to recognize the signs and dangers of methamphetamine labs. [continues 290 words]
With Montana's approval of a medical marijuana initiative, nearly three-fourths of Western states now have such laws -- while only two of the 37 states outside the West have adopted them. Why is the West so much more receptive to the idea? >From a procedural standpoint, it's just easier to get pot issues on Western ballots because most states in the region allow such initiatives. Nationwide, just 24 states allow citizens to put issues on the ballot by petition, bypassing the Legislature. Eleven of those states are in the West. [continues 492 words]
WASHINGTON - The commander of U.S. - led forces in Afghanistan said Tuesday he may need more troops in the months ahead if the army starts fighting a war on opium. Lt. Gen. David Barno told reporters at the Pentagon that the Defense Department is considering an expanded role in snuffing out Afghanistan's opium trade, which has blossomed since the fall of the Taliban regime. American troops would probably help with interdiction, while the British concentrates on eradicating poppy fields, he said. [continues 500 words]
SYRACUSE - Syracuse city lawmakers are examining local alternatives to the war on drugs, asking for advice from national experts to help develop a new drug policy. "It's become increasingly apparent to a lot of different people that the war on drugs is not working," said Stephanie Miner, chairwoman of the council's finance committee. "This is something that's going on across the country, and we want to learn how other communities are dealing with it, and if there's a way to spend money more efficiently," she said. [continues 169 words]
NEW YORK - A former narcotics detective who renovated his Long Island home with $45,000 in stolen drug money was sentenced to two years in prison Friday despite his lawyers pleas that he was drunk and distraught over his wife's ill health during the theft. Carlos Rodriguez was the first New York police officer sentenced in New York 's worst police corruption scandal in a decade. At least nine officers have been implicated in thefts of cocaine and drug money linked to their work on a northern Manhattan anti-narcotics initiative. [continues 140 words]
BUFFALO, N.Y. - A marijuana ring passed out business cards and fliers at schools and painted its distribution houses bright blue to signal customers, according to authorities who spent Thursday rounding up suspected members, including the alleged ringleader and a city police detective. More than 300 local and federal officers, including five SWAT teams, arrested roughly two dozen suspects and searched a dozen houses, confiscating six handguns and an undetermined amount of cash and drugs, said Peter Ahearn, special agent in charge of Buffalo's FBI office. [continues 259 words]
MORRISTOWN - Two women are in custody after being found in possession of Ecstasy and marijuana that authorities say is worth more than $2 million. Heather Clement-Shenandoah, 31, St. Paul, Minn., and Hai Thi Nguyen, 49, Vancouver, British Columbia, were arrested on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute drugs following a nightlong investigation that began when they stopped at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint at Routes 37 and 12 in the town of Morristown about 9 p.m. "They started with an illegal alien and then found all these drugs," St. Lawrence County Sheriff Gary J. Jarvis said. [continues 223 words]
Monnet Succeeds Smith In St. Lawrence County OGDENSBURG - Lee J. Monnet is getting main stream. Well, not quite. The man who ran for state Assembly two years ago as a Libertarian, and has shirked everything Republican or Democrat, now holds the power to give or deny St. Lawrence County candidates in those parties one thing they often want - the Independence Party line on the ballot. "It seems different now that I'm main stream," he said. "I don't want the party run over by Democrats or Republicans. I'd like to see independents get involved." [continues 423 words]
A portion of your Sept. 18 editorial "Good Decision" left me disgusted. You wrote "charges against (X) were dismissed. That is to bad". Too bad that half of the federal prison spaced is used to jail nonviolent drug offenders. Too bad that some states, like California, have more nonviolent drug offenders serving 25 years to life without parole than all their thieves, rapist and murderers combined. And, too bad, to those nonviolent drug offenders who have been raped in prison and infected with AIDS, in essence sentenced to death for using marijuana. [continues 195 words]
A judge dismissed a marijuana-growing case against Terrence M. Sutton in the interest of justice while blasting the U.S. Border Patrol and local police for a "warrantless" search that "traumatized" Mr. Sutton's wife and 8-year-old daughter. Jefferson county Court Judge Kim H. Martusewicz repeatedly referred to the "occupation" by federal agents and police of the Sutton modular home and property at Route 1 in the town of Alexandria. The judge ruled that the Aug. 28, 2003, raid violated the U.S. and state constitutions. [continues 1373 words]
Judge Affirms Constitutional Rights Police officers cannot just barge in to a residence without a warrant, terrorize a family and conduct a search The U.S. Constitution and the New York State Constitution protect against such warrantless raids. Yet that is what federal, state and local police officers did to a family in the town of Alexandria last August. Their actions drew a severe reprimand this week from Jefferson County Court Judge Kim H. Martusewicz, and rightly so. The judge dismissed a marijuana-growing case and chastised police for their tactics. [continues 398 words]
Researchers Study Neurons SAN JOSE, Calif. - Mother Nature created a way to ``tune in, turn on'' long before pot-smokers rolled their first joint, Stanford scientists have found. Eavesdropping on the conversations between brain cells, the research team found that neurons make their own marijuana-like chemicals called cannabinoids, which indirectly alter the way information is received and filtered. When the chemicals are released, ``neurons have a harder time deciding which are the relevant things to pay attention to,'' said investigator John R. Huguenard, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. [continues 310 words]
Weldon H. Angelos, a 25-year-old producer of rap records, will be sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Salt Lake City for selling several hundred dollars in marijuana on each of three occasions, his first offences. He faces 63 years in prison. Laws that set mandatory minimums sentences require 55 of the 63 years because Angelos carried a gun while he sold the drugs. "It would appear effectively to be a life sentence," the judge, Paul G. Cassell of U. S. District Court there, wrote in a request to the prosecution and the defense for advice about whether he has any choice but to send the man to prison forever. [continues 153 words]
WASHINGTON - Fewer American youths are using marijuana thanks to anti-drug messages that highlighted its risk, according to a federal report released Thursday. However, the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health also showed that more Americans are abusing prescription drugs. Although the survey reflects many positive changes, it also shows "just how much work still remains to be done to stop drug use before it starts and to heal America's users," Charles G. Curie, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), said at a news conference. [continues 269 words]
Did I detect a little humor in the Aug. 5 article "Schumer Unveils Three-Part Plan For Nipping Meth Problem In The Bud"? Could it be a reporter from the Watertown Daily Times is starting to see the joke on the taxpayers the war on drugs has become. Senator Schumer said at Thursday's press conference "it took 15 years to get the crack problem in hand". He doesn't want the same thing with crystal meth. What has worked stopping the use of crack-cocaine? [continues 213 words]
U. S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer said Wednesday that for rural New York, it is 1984. The state's senior senator wasn't citing an Orwellian prophecy, but saying that in 2004, methamphetamines are to rural New York what crack cocaine was to New York City 20 years ago - a budding problem. "When I became a congressman, there was this new drug people talked about, and it was called crack," Mr. Schumer said in a morning press conference at the Metro-Jefferson Public Safety Building, Watertown. "No one paid attention at first, and it became a problem. It took us about 15 years to get the crack problem in hand. We don't want to do the same thing with crystal meth." [continues 882 words]
MONROE CITY, IN. - Communities searching for innovative ways to stop the production of methamphetamine have tried everything from distributing locks for fertilizer tanks to training road crew to identify meth labs. Steve Luce, a sheriff from Knox County with a Wild West streak, dons a cowboy hat and hops on a horse. Since March, The sheriff and his deputies have gone by horseback through forest and farms three or four times a month, looking for the labs in places were cars and all-terrain vehicles cannot go. [continues 395 words]
Hogansburg - The St Regis Mohawk Tribal Police and the Franklin County Task Force will receive $176,687 in recognition of their fight against the marijuana trade in 2003. Representatives from the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection will present checks to Tribal Police Chief Andrew J. Thomas and to Franklin County District Attorney Derek P. Champagne. The ceremony will occur Friday in the Franklin County Courthouse, Malone. The money comes from assets seized by federal agents from individuals allegedly growing marijuana. They were seized under federal forfeiture laws that allow sharing of narcotics-related proceeds with state and local agencies involved in the investigations. [continues 254 words]
Correctional Population Sets A Record The number of Americans either in prison or jail, on probation or parole, is at 6.9 million - a record high, according to the justice department. That is 130,700 more people than last year. While the crime rate has stabilized in recent years, the "correctional population" has risen. Experts trace the increase to tougher sentencing laws drafted in the 1990s that have caused offenders to serve longer terms. The numbers amount to 3.2 percent of the adult population - a lot of people under control of the criminal justice system. [end]
POTSDAM - Village police received a check for more than $40,000 Wednesday for their assistance in four drug-related investigations. U.S. Border Patrol Massena station Superintendent Richard L. Ashlaw presented the department with checks totaling $40,952.92 for their assistance in investigations with the St. Lawrence County Drug Task Force, county Sheriff's Department and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "It will be used for additional training and equipment geared toward drug suppression," Chief John A. Kaplan said. In one case, village officers assisted in the seizure of hydroponically grown marijuana valued at more than $100,000, Chief Kaplan said. Assistance can include using the dog unit, transporting prisoners and interviewing sources, Chief Kaplan said. [end]
Stewart MacMillian limited the radical conservatism of the Reagan legacy to union busting and the "some how" legality of bribes (corporate political donations) in his July 6 letter. During the Reagan presidency some of the most prohibitive drug control laws ever were passed. Mandatory minimum drug sentencing was passed in 1986. Prison time is determined by the weight of the drugs involved in the offense. Parole was abolished and prisoners must serve 85 percent of their sentence. The only way to receive a more lenient sentence is to act as an informant against others. The guidelines in effect stripped Article III of judges sentencing discretion and turned it over to prosecutors. [continues 139 words]
Lower Prices Pave Way For Alternatives The glut of poppy production has led to a depressed market for Afghan growers. Three-quarters of the worlds illegal opium supply is produced in Afghanistan, an undesirable consequence of the fall of the Taliban. Opium is the leading national crop grown by an estimated 1.7 million Afghans, 7 percent of the country's population. It produced nearly $1 billion last year, about one quarter of Afghanistan's gross domestic product. Lured by the high prices paid by smugglers, Afghans turned to opium rather than less profitable crops such as potatoes and vegetables. [continues 139 words]
Federal Judge, ABA Join Call For Reform A federal judge and the American Bar Association have taken exception to mandatory minimum sentencing laws at the state and federal levels. Judge William G. Young, chief justice of the federal district court in Boston, on Monday ruled unconstitutional federal sentencing laws that limit judicial discretion and give prosecutors to much power. Judge Young lashed out at the Feeney Amendment, which limited judges' ability to impose lenient sentences, calling it "the saddest and most counterproductive episode in the evolution of federal sentencing doctrine." [continues 272 words]
COLLINS LANDING - A Canadian trucker entering the United States on Wellesley Island early Monday with a load of small plastic balls for recycling was also carrying 200 pounds of "British Columbia bud" marijuana, according to state police and federal authorities. The illegal product, contained in five boxes, has a street value of $250,000 to $750,000, sources said, depending on where it was going to be marketed. The trucker, Kimberly Thomas Wallis, 44, Wyevale, Ontario, was detained Monday night in the Metro-Jefferson Public Safety Building, Watertown, and was transferred Tuesday morning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Syracuse. A federal grand jury in Syracuse indicted him Tuesday on a charge of smuggling a dangerous drug into the country, according to Michael W. Gilhooly, Burlington, Vt., spokesman for Immigration and Customs. [continues 189 words]
Authorities Tracked $4M In Pot HOGANSBURG, N. Y. - A 16-month long investigation into the smuggling of high-grade marijuana into the U.S. through the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation led to the arrest Thursday of 27 people, including a state police dispatcher assigned to Troop B headquarters in Ray Brook. The coordinated arrest, involving state, federal and provincial authorities on both sides of the border, took place from Montreal to Syracuse beginning at 6 a.m. "The principal target in the U.S. investigation was Lawrence P. Mitchell, an owner an chief executive officer of Mitchell's Construction and Sales Inc., 459 Route 37, Hogansburg," according to a statement released by the office of Franklin County District Attorney Derek P. Champagne. [continues 777 words]
Overdue Revisions Stalled In Legislature State Senate Republicans this week walked away from a conference committee that offered hope of achieving long-desired reforms in the state's draconian Rockefeller drug laws. Unable to reach agreement with Assembly Democrats after a half-dozen meetings, senators said there was no reason to continue the rare format of using an open conference committee in a process where major legislation is drafted behind closed doors by the three top officials - - Gov. George E. Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. [continues 255 words]
I find it disturbing when law enforcement moves from enforcing the law to commanding the law. ("Law Enforcement Enters The Fray Over Rolling Back Drug Sentencing," Watertown Daily Times, June 7. The Rockefeller drug laws have New York taxpayers paying more for prisons than for education. It has put mothers in prison for life on conspiracy charges. Conspiracy charges mean no drugs were found in their possession. It has made the legislators lazy in St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Franklin, and Lewis counties. They depend on prison population to secure census related funding. Look at what the Law Enforcement Coalition Against drug Decriminalization is made up of. All are supported by New York Taxpayers. [continues 149 words]
ALBANY- The entrance of law enforcement agencies into the debate over changing drug offender sentencing statues in New York is designed to shape reforms, not thwart them, organizers said. Police and prosecutors are attempting to present a unified front through their new group, called the Law Enforcement Coalition Against drug Decriminalization, said Oneida County District Attorney Michael Arcuri, president of the state District Attorneys Association. A joint state Senate-Assembly conference committee is trying to reach a compromise agreement on rolling back the notoriously harsh drug sentencing laws. It meets again today, though time for a deal is getting short with the scheduled June 22 deadline for the end of the regular 2004 legislative session looming. [continues 273 words]
CANTON - Buying at a St. Lawrence county auction an aging luxury car that had once been used to carry drugs turned out to be less of a bargain than expected, according to a disgruntled town of Fine man. "They are dealing me dirt, "Stanley D. Stewart said after the state Department of Motor Vehicles in Albany refused to honor the title to a 1994 Infinity he purchased at a county auction last fall. "I bought it fair and square and then to have to go through all this turmoil. It sounds like corruption," Mr. Stewart said. [continues 235 words]
OGDENSBURG - State police are investigating the discovery of marijuana in an inmate's locker at Riverview Correctional Facility on May 20. [end]
GOUVERNEUR - A man's attempt to hide his car and a $120,000 load of hydroponic marijuana from police here failed Thursday afternoon when a police task force watched him reclaim the vehicle. [DELETE], 22 and [DELETE] 21, both of St. Regis Quebec, were arrested on Welch Road in the town of Gouverneur at about 2:30 p.m. after police using a search warrant, found 40 pounds of the high-grade marijuana in the trunk of the vehicle, police said. [continues 128 words]
Crime Rate Down, But 1 In 75 Incarcerated WASHINGTON (AP) - America's prison population grew by 2.9 percent last year, to almost 2.1 million inmates, with one of every 75 men living in prison or jail. The inmate population continued its rise despite a fall in the crime rate and many states' efforts to reduce some sentences, especially for low-level drug offenders. The report issued Thursday by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics attributes much of the increase to get-tough policies enacted during the 1980s and 90s such as mandatory drug sentences, "three-strikes-and-your out" laws for repeat offenders, and "truth - -in-sentencing laws." That restrict early releases. [continues 202 words]
DETROIT - Eight police officers were acquitted Thursday of charges that they lied, falsified reports and planted evidence to lock up drug dealers and other criminals. The jury, after deliberating for more than three days, found the officers not guilty of all charges. Nearly 100 witnesses testified during the trial, which started Feb. 11 and included five days of closing arguments. Defense lawyers argued the case was built on the lies of criminals who wanted to get the Detroit officers off the force. Outside the federal courthouse Thursday, the officers and their families cried and hugged each other. [continues 152 words]
Albany Should Enact Drug Law Reforms State lawmakers are talking about reforming the Rockefeller-era drug laws. The laws are among the harshest in the nation with lengthy mandatory sentences for minor offences. Critics blame them for filling state prisons with low-level drug offenders and particularly minorities. Ninety-three percent of those imprisoned on drug charges are black or Hispanic although studies show that whites are the majority of drug users. The laws restrict judicial discretion and the use of less expensive alternatives to incarceration that could lead to rehabilitation and a lower rate of recidivism. [continues 185 words]
ALBANY - One of the enduring mysteries here in recent years is why the state has been unable to overhaul the Rockefeller drug laws, which force judges to sentence drug offenders to lengthy prison terms that the three most powerful state officials, Gov. George E. Pataki and the leaders of both houses of the Legislature, agree are draconian. Officials came within a hair's breadth of rewriting the laws last year, only to have the deal dissolve in the middle of the night behind closed doors. [continues 524 words]
MONTPELIER, Vt. - Vermont will become the ninth state to let very sick patients use marijuana to alleviate pain, nausea and other systems without fear of state prosecution. Gov. James Douglas said the bill covers "symptom relief for a small percentage of individuals with only the most debilitating conditions," like cancer and AIDS. [end]
There were no surprises. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics announced that in 2001 the United States spent a record $167 billion on law enforcement and criminal justice. The growth was no surprise because every year the United States locks up more people, setting a new record for high incarceration since the previous year. The United States now holds 2.1 million people in prison and jail. All that incarceration cost money, and it all comes from someplace else. Some money comes from hospitals. The new data reveal that law enforcement expenditures have risen to match health care at 7 percent of state budgets. In 1995, states spent 9.7 percent of their budgets on health care, so spending on health care has been declining even as the population has been aging. Since 1977, correction expenditures have increased more than twice as fast as spending on health care. [continues 427 words]
CHEVALIER, Haiti - The riches that arrived in this tiny village came from the sea - not in fisherman's nets but in an abandoned speedboat that washed up last year stocked with dozens of cellophane-wrapped bricks of Colombian cocaine. "Everyone else was grabbing it, so I took some," said Vital, a young fisherman. I gave it to my father, and the men came from Port-au-Prince to buy it for a lot of money." The cargo taught this southern coastal village what Haitian police and government officials have known for years: The drug trade is one of the few ways in Haiti to amass a fortune. [continues 277 words]
Montel Williams on Tuesday at the state capitol threw his support behind legalizing medical marijuana in New York, saying pot helps him cop with multiple sclerosis. Williams, who was diagnosed with the neurological disease in 1999, said he uses marijuana every night before bed to relieve the pain in his legs and feet. "I'm breaking the law every night, and I will continue to break the law," Williams, host of the syndicated "Montel Williams Show," said Tuesday in Albany. Williams recalled during a news conference how prescription painkillers and even morphine failed to control his tremors and spasms. [continues 108 words]
In response to "Get Back to Agenda", it seems the writer is disturbed that Mayor Jeff Graham questioned the enforcement of marijuana laws. In a free and open society everyone has the inalienable right to voice their opinion on government or laws. Personally, I respect the Mayor for discussing this issue. As massive budget deficits at the Federal, State, and local levels are becoming a huge burden on all taxpayers, perhaps it's time we reassess the way our tax dollars are being spent, including the arresting and jailing of marijuana users. [continues 107 words]
NEW YORK - A highly additive, easy-to-obtain drug blamed for ravaging the nation's heartland is creeping into New York-and has federal agents and cops mounting a full-blown crackdown. On the street, methamphetamine is known as poor man's cocaine, tina, crank, crissy, crystal meth-or simply meth. Already popular among segments of the city's gay community and club kids, meth has shown signs of extending its poisonous reach to a wider population in New York. "We are alarmed because we have seen a significant uptick in the availability of methamphetamine," said Anthony Placido, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's New York division. [continues 506 words]
TOPPENISH, Wash. - After 55 years of packing Eastern Washington asparagus, the Del Monte Foods factory here moved operations to Peru last year, eliminating 365 jobs. As the global economy churns, nearly every sector has a story about U.S. jobs landing on cheaper shores. But what happened to the U.S. asparagus industry is rare, farmers here say, because it became a casualty of the government's war on drugs. To reduce the flow of cocaine into the U.S. by encouraging farmers in Peru to grow food instead of coca, the United States in the early 1990s started to subsidize the Peruvian asparagus industry, and since then U.S. processing plants have closed and hundreds of farmers have folded. [continues 258 words]
MALONE - Two cousins from Hogansburg were jailed Thursday after being charged with having 30 pounds of marijuana in their car. The arrest of [delete] 24, and [delete], 18 both of 359 McGee Road, marked the second time in a week that a major marijuana shipment was intercepted at a U. S. Border Patrol checkpoint near Paul Smiths in southern Franklin County. "They saw our checkpoint and tried to abscond," Leslie M. Lawton, assistant chief patrol agent at Border Patrol sector headquarters in Swanton, VT. , said. [continues 579 words]
ROCHESTER - Federal and state police have shut down a drug-trafficing ring they say was capable of distributing as much as $1.5 million worth of heroin each month in Rochester and Buffalo. A dozen people, most of them immigrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico and Colombia, were arrested at eight residents and a liquor store Thursday after an eight-month investigation that employed undercover drug buys and telephone wiretaps. The heroin appears to have originated in Colombia and been funneled through Texas, Florida and New York City, as well as other U.S. cities, said special agent John Bryfonski, chief of the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration's operations in upstate New York. [continues 147 words]
In just a few months since being elected, our mayor seems to have caused a lot of controversy. First, he tried to get the city taxpayers to provide him with free health benefits. That didn't pass. Second, he tried to get a pay raise, or what he called legislative compensation. That didn't work. Now he has questioned our local law enforcement on the legal issues of marijuana. The mayor is supposed to be a leader and set an example for others to follow. [continues 127 words]
WHITE PLAINS - Four men have been arrested on drug charges after allegedly carrying vast amounts of cocaine to the East Coast by packing it into fancy cars and a rap singer's luxury tour bus, where drugs and cash were hidden under her bed. The singer, Gloria Velez, who has appeared in videos with rap heavyweights such as Jay-Z, DMX and Ja Rule, has not been charged. Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who announced the arrest, would not comment Monday on whether Velez was cooperating with prosecutors. [continues 163 words]
HAZARD, Kentucky -- Authorities in eastern Kentucky began arresting more than 200 suspected drug dealers Tuesday in the state's biggest crackdown yet on Oxycontin, the powerful prescription painkiller blamed for scores of deaths. More than 100 officers from local, state and federal agencies began the roundup at daybreak, taking suspects straight from their beds. Police expected to arrest about 210 people, said Dan Smoot, head of law enforcement for the anti-drug task force Operation UNITE in Hazard. The raids came as authorities brace for an increase in Oxycontin trafficking when a generic version of the drug hits the market. [continues 109 words]
MASSENA - U. S. Border Patrol agents are still trying to trace the ownership, and find the operator, of a boat containing 60 pounds of marijuana that was seizes after a pursuit on the St. Lawrence River. "We are running it down," said Leslie M. Lawson, assistant chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol's Swanton, Vt. sector as agents try to trace the origin of an 18-foot johnboat and motor that were seized late on April 1 by a joint patrol of Border Patrol agents and U. S. Coast Guard members from Alexandria Bay. [continues 170 words]
