U.S. Coast Guard members boarded an 18-foot boat near Neah Bay on Thursday and found a duffle bag containing 60,000 tablets of Ecstasy, worth more than $720,000 in street value.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Eric Chandler said the North River boat had crossed into U.S. waters from British Columbia. Its sole occupant, Reed McCarty, 21, was arrested and charged with possession with the intent to distribute, Chandler said. The seizure was made in cooperation with the Makah Tribe’s police department, which was involved with the investigation leading to McCarty’s arrest.

The seizure comes less than two weeks after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stopped a 30-foot Bayliner for a routine check near Cattle Point, off San Juan Island. Boarding the boat, agents found two empty hockey bags smelling strongly of marijuana.

A subsequent search of the boat turned up 132 pounds of high-grade “B.C. bud” from British Columbia stashed in compartments throughout the boat. Danny Menard, 42 and Raymond Kuemper, 45, Canadian citizens from Langley, B.C., were arrested and are face charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

Bags of Ecstasy worth an estimated $720,000 in street value were seized by a Coast Guard team.

CBP agents say the level of drugs smuggled by boat across the U.S. border into Puget Sound has increased over the past year, following a crackdown on smuggling by aircraft. Drug traffickers have become increasingly sophisticated, authorities say, using a broad range of people and virtually all types of watercraft to move drugs across the invisible marine boundary.

“You can go out on any busy day, and just about anything you see on the water is something (smugglers) will use,” said James Warfield, Customs and Border Protection’s director of marine operations for the Puget Sound region.

Since 2003, authorities have arrested 104 people and seized more than 8,800 pounds of pot, 222 kilos of cocaine and $1.2 million from boats traveling through the Puget Sound region.

About Deborah Bach

Deborah Bach is the editor and co-founder of Three Sheets Northwest. She is an avid sailor and long-time professional journalist. You can find Deborah aboard Three Sheets, an Island Packet 38, with her husband Marty and their cat Lily.

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