Month of guns, porn and ’blades at border
Between gathering up discarded handguns in their own parking lot to unloading hundreds of switchblades, Saskatchewan border agents had a less-thanpredictable March.
Here are some of the highlights:
GUN? WHAT GUN?
A U.S. citizen pleaded guilty in Carlyle provincial court to making false statements and unauthorized possession of a handgun in a vehicle after he tossed a loaded .45-calibre handgun out into the border facility parking lot.
Neal Ainsworth Jr. was crossing into Saskatchewan at North Portal on March 21 when he declared he had no weapons in his vehicle. He was selected for secondary screening and while on the way to that area, tossed the gun. According to Canada Border Services Agency spokesman Luke Reimer, no officers saw the gun come out, but members of the public saw the gun and reported it. The action was caught on security cameras.
Reimer said Ainsworth denied the gun was his twice before being told of the video evidence. After that, he admitted it was his. Ainsworth was fined $10,000. “That’s not one we see very often,” said Reimer.
SWITCHBLADES SWITCHED OFF
The biggest seizure of the month came March 24 when an examination of a commercial truck trailer revealed 1,612 switchblades, a prohibited weapon in Canada.
According to Reimer, the blades were being brought in for a business across the border. He would not say if it was the business owner or another party trying to bring the weapons across the border.
Charges are pending but for now the switchblades have been seized and will not be returned. When weapons like that are seized, Reimer said, they are destroyed — either at the Queen’s warehouses, by local police or private companies (a metal scrapyard or metal smelter) pending an appeal process.
THE REST
North Portal officers also made two suspected child pornography seizures — one on March 8 in which a U.S. man bound for Alaska was found with suspected prohibited image on his cellphone and one on March 26 when a commercial truck driver was found with possible images on his laptops.
Officers are also responsible for turning away people with criminal records trying to enter the country and did so in March to people with convictions including intent to distribute cocaine, embezzlement, battery, false personation, aggravated assault, sexual misconduct with a minor and fraud over $5,000.