10A» NEWS
, 20, 2012 B . B
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U.S. targets drug trafficking via Canada Agencies create a strategy to harden border regions within remote Indian reservations. By Dan Freedman Hearst Newspapers
washington» The U.S. government is attempting to harden the U.S.Canada border against drug trafficking, especial ly through remote Indian reservations, according to its new northern border drug strategy to be released today. A year in the making, the “National Northern Border Counternarcotics Strategy” pinpoints six tribal areas di rectly on the 4,000 miles of border be tween Washington and Maine, including
SCHOOL:
Embattled Neenan Co. to pay for its repairs
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FROM 1A
serious structural defects at Meeker’s $17.9 million elemen tary school and more minor is sues at six other Colorado schools. “We stand behind the build ings we build, and when there are findings like this, where recommendations are prudent, we follow the recommendation out of an abundance of cau tion,” Andy Boian, a spokesman for Neenan, said Thursday. Neenan already has made fixes to a section of the roof that wasn’t designed to handle snow loads at the 190student Sargent school and put in temporary supports in the library to shore up a beam, officials said. Compton said the problems are wearing on the community, which passed a bond for the project, as well as faculty and staff preparing for Colorado Stu dent Assessment Program tests. “Schools today are into some pretty highstakes testing, and you all want student achieve ment at the top of your list,” he said. “And I’m spending an aw ful lot of time on construction right now.” The review found a long span of roof joists over the gym and auditorium lack adequate con nections where they bear on precast concrete wall panels, Jirsa Hedrick wrote in a letter to Neenan on Monday. “Effective immediately, until this repair is complete, the en tire school building should not be used if the winds are expect ed to exceed 25 miles per hour,” the letter stated. The full review is not com plete. The repair calls for the joists to be welded to plates in the panels. If winds hit 25 mph before that happens, school will be canceled in advance or students will be evacuated to an old gym across the street and their par ents will be contacted to pick them up, Compton said. Winds at an airport in Alamo sa, about 18 miles from Monte Vista, regularly exceed 25 mph, reaching as high as 54 mph sus tained and gusting up to 75 mph, according to the National Weather Service. “We have winds like the ocean has water,” Compton said. He said the building has shown no signs of stress be cause of high winds. The school opened in fall 2010 and was built with a $17.6 million grant from the state’s Building Excellent Schools Today pro gram, as well as a local match. After the problems in Meeker, a Colorado Department of Edu cation official said he requested Neenan contract with firms to carry out independent reviews of 15 schools it designed and built through the grant program — and Neenan agreed. The re views are ongoing. Eric Gorski: 3039541971 or egorski@denverpost.com
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the St. Regis Mohawk reservation in up state New York, and 24 reservations on the Great Lakes or close to the border, including nine in Washington. “Drug smugglers have been known to seek out tribal jurisdictions in order to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States,” the report said. It singles out the St. Regis Mohawk reservation in far northern Franklin County, N.Y., as a border location “being used by a number of largescale traffick ing organizations to facilitate smuggling activities.” Local authorities have tracked drug loads moving through Franklin County to 31 states. Overlapping federal, state, local and tribal jurisdictions and the rugged ter
rain have created “unique challenges” for law enforcement countering smug glers who specialize in bringing across highly potent, indoorgrown marijuana. Although tribal communities employ their own police forces, resources to combat sophisticated traffickers often are “inadequate,” the strategy said. The strategy document commits the U.S. government to helping tribal police forces add personnel and upgraded equipment, as well as improving coordi nation with agents from U.S. law en forcement agencies such as the Drug En forcement Administration and Immigra tion and Customs Enforcement. The report praised increased levels of cooperation between Canadian and U.S.
law enforcement, and also called for: B Efforts to “deconflict” intelligence sharing so agencies avoid “miscommu nication.” B Enhanced interagency task forces and more outreach to borderregion lo cals “who can serve as law enforce ment’s eyes and ears in remote areas.” B More hightech monitoring systems and airmarine operations to help law enforcement, especially in winter months when traffickers move drugs on snowmobiles across frozen lakes. B Improved joint operations with Cana da to disrupt production of marijuana and the drug “ecstasy,” and improved cross border cooperation on undercover opera tions and electronic eavesdropping.
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