It is a fine autumn mid week morning in Oroville, Washington as I arrive at the offices of the United States Border Patrol.

I’m there to call on Patrol Agent in Charge Richard Graham Jr., to take part in a tour of the organization’s facility, and get a first hand look at the Border Patrol’s efforts to prevent smuggling across both sides of the 49th parallel.

Graham greets me as I walk in the door of the office. He’s a big guy, dressed in the green military style uniform of the Border Patrol, and he looks all business, from that point of view.

For some reason, (probably due to the nature of the business I am researching) the first idea that pops into my head is, “I wouldn’t want trouble from this guy.”

Graham, however, turns out to be affable and accommodating. We take seats in his office as we talk about the basic issues surrounding the Border Patrol’s reason for being.

“The Border Patrol began in 1924, when it was realized that uncontrolled immigration couldn’t be allowed - mainly along the southern border,” Graham answers in response to my initial question.

“The most serious issues we are dealing with here in Oroville involve the smuggling of ephedrine and marijuana - B.C. bud - from Canada. Human smuggling is a problem, too.” Guns, money, cocaine, and to a much lesser extent, tobacco and alcohol flow from south to north.

The Oroville Border Patrol, part of the Spokane Sector, looks after the 49th parallel from the Pacific Crest Trail in Manning Park to a point near Bridesville - most of which is extremely rugged and largely remote terrain.

“We are responsible for patrolling the third largest county in the U.S., which is also one of the least populated,” Graham continues. “I like to say that we look after the first right hand turn after leaving Blaine - that’s why we are the busiest station in the Spokane sector.”

Border Patrol staff has been steadily increasing since 1997, when a total of seven people manned the station. While Graham wouldn’t say how many officers patrol the area these days, it is obvious that there are considerably more field officers than there was 10 years ago.

“We deal with air smuggling, on horse, vehicles - and a lot of smugglers on foot.

As our personnel increases, smuggling traffic is slowing down.”

Graham emphasizes one aspect of the job that he has taken great lengths to promote since he became station commander in 1997.

“We work closely with the community,” he says. “Ranchers, private citizens, service groups - we are in continuous dialogue with them. We run citizen’s academy programs, sponsor Explorer programs, which is part of the Boy Scouts - all initiatives in the community, in an effort to educate the public as to what we do. We also have a reward program that pays for information that leads to a smuggling arrest or conviction.”

Graham stresses the importance of having the public on his side. Ranchers strung along the border readily notice out of place activities in their fields, strangers in rural areas, and other aspects of life that don’t fit into regular patterns.

The Border Patrol also cultivates good relations with their counterparts on the Canadian side as well.

“We work closely with the RCMP,” Graham admits.“Through IBET (Integrated Border Enforcement Teams) we share information across the border. We also work at building professional and personal relationships with RCMP officers. We share intelligence on a daily basis and in general, there is close cooperation on both sides. It’s a team effort.”

Graham offers me a look through the Border Patrol office before going for a patrol tour.

On the walls surrounding the building’s briefing room I can’t help but notice several photographs and a mural depicting border scenes that show Border Patrol officers alongside their counterparts - Mounties - on the opposite side. The emphasis on cross border familiarity and cooperation is hard to miss.

The organization has outgrown its present facility, a fact that becomes apparent as we tour the building. Officer’s workstations and desks fill every nook and cranny, even filling up space in the detention area adjacent to the two holding cells.

Garage bays act as storage units for equipment, displacing vehicles.

“A new headquarters is in the works, possibly next year,” Graham explains. The unit has obtained some property on the west side of Highway 97, a short distance south of the international border crossing.

We get into Graham’s patrol vehicle, a beefy four wheel drive Chevy diesel pickup, and head up the Oroville - Chesaw Road towards the Sidley area east of the Okanagan valley. I ask Graham about his experience with the Border Patrol.

“I’ve been with the Patrol since 1984,” he answers as we climb into the nearby highlands. “It used to be that we’d work to catch the smugglers, and if they got away, we accepted it as part of what can happen on the job. That changed after 9/11. It became very personal.

Following 9/11, we were able to figure out how all those terrorists came into the country. Since then, the realization that anyone who enters illegally could be the next terrorist threat has become a highly motivating factor for us.

These days, there is a high degree of responsibility amongst the officers here.”

As we drive up the road, Graham points out locations where the Patrol has made busts in the past.

“We spotted Koreans waiting for pickup along here,” he points out along a road paralleling the border, but located a good four miles south.

“These guys show great determination in trying to get into the States.”

He points out another location where a drugs-for -money transfer was being made. The money - thousands of dollars in cash - had been stashed in field nearby, and neither party in the deal would claim it.

“We seized it, of course” said Graham.

“You can imagine what the consequences might be for the party that had to account for that cash .”

Graham takes us down a rugged road that heads straight for the border near the top of Anarchist Mountain. A number of lots are being developed in close proximity to the 49th parallel, and use of the road by smugglers is common, as are several other points in the high country, mainly in locations where Highway 3 on the Canadian side sweeps close to the border.

On the other side of the line, a large subdivision is also being developed to within spitting distance of the border. This could present big challenges for law enforcement agencies on both sides of the line as the population in this largely undeveloped area grows, and it becomes more difficult to know everyone’s business.

Graham has a number of tales to tell about drug dealers and busts made through the years, and explains some of the methods used to ferret out the bad guys.

“We are always suspicious,” he answers in response to a question about vehicles using the border roads. “Our officers have developed some interesting and unique ways of finding out what people are doing along the border, all of which are done in a very inoffensive manner.”

Graham makes note of topographic locations in the area where smugglers set up observation posts to watch for Border Patrol activity. The locations - on both the Canadian and U.S. sides - allow them a commanding view of a terrain that has patchy forest and large tracts of open rangeland sloping westerly toward the Okanogan valley.

I ask about remote survellance methods, having taken note of the volumes of equipment that is being housed at the Patrol’s Oroville office.

“We try to employ all the “off the shelf” technology we get our hands on,” he answers without allowing further detail.

The Border Patrol is well supplied with night vision, thermal imaging, and high tech, high resolution cameras, but there was an obvious reluctance to reveal all the agency’s capabilities.

I wondered how sophisticated the smugglers were getting.

“People are always learning, they’re human, he replied. “It’s a cat and mouse game... but remember, they have to be right all the time. I only have to be right once.”

The Border Patrol may have access to high tech surveillance methods, but it is the less sophisticated techniques that pay off - and are widely used by the Oroville squad.

“Our main job is to be out in the field,” Graham said, “and some of the detection methods we use are right out of the old west.” He describes the old Indian art of “sign cutting” - looking for signs of disturbance along the road, or in adjacent fields and bush, that indicate human activity. Scrutinizing the edge of the road can reveal indications of smuggling that have led to stakeouts and arrests.

The highland country around Sidley and the old west town of Molson have a smuggling tradition around them as has the “Whiskey Trail,” the old Great Northern Railway corridor that follows the Similkameen River’s west bank across the 49th parallel.

A rare fog has obscured much of the countryside around Sidley Lake and Molson this morning. With nothing left to check out, we begin making our way back to Oroville. On the way back I ask Graham about penalties for smuggling into the U.S.

“Coming into the U.S. over an unmanned crossing could get you six months in a federal penitentiary on your first conviction,” Graham says. “Depending on what you are doing, and how you are doing it, you could be taking your life in your hands. You may face further fines from customs, and the contraband you’re carrying will likely result in contravention of other laws that will result in other fines.

Just for “wandering” across, you can end up with a $5,000 fine.

The last thing you want is to have your name coming across my desk. In most cases, that’ll mean a lot of trouble for you.”

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