Cross-border smuggling targeted in Mich.

DETROIT, June 22 (UPI) -- U.S. Border Patrol agents in Michigan say they are stepping up their anti-smuggling activities as the summer boating season picks up.

Smugglers have used the St. Clair and Detroit rivers separating the United States from Canada since the early 1800s to smuggle people and contraband back and forth between the countries. As thousands of recreational boaters fill the rivers and Lake St. Clair, it becomes much more difficult to pick out illegal activity, the Detroit Free Press reported Monday.

In response, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it is using a $6 million federal grant to beef up border patrols and has signed an unprecedented agreement with the Drug Enforcement Administration to pool resources and share information about smuggling investigations.

The newspaper said the most common forms of cross-border smuggling in Michigan include narcotics and illegal immigrants coming into the state with alcohol and cigarettes heading into Canada.

Capt. Dave Teske, head of the Macomb County, Mich., Sheriff's Marine Division, told the Free Press 31 round-the-clock cameras are being added to the St. Clair River to help identify smugglers.