Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents do not seem to have been too concerned originally about Leroy Carr. True, they did notice him crossing the Canadian border four different times this year, each time carrying thousands of dollars in cash. They also noticed that he was carrying night-vision goggles and a "GPS device programmed with coordinates for a well-known drug-smuggling trail." Seems to me that would be probable cause, even here in the Ninth Circuit, but they let him go each time. If this was part of a sting operation, the article didn't say anything about it.
Rest easy, O Reader, for thus doth the steel curtain erected around our homeland remain impermeable.
In August, though, Carr called them. According to a complaint filed this week, Carr called the agency and told agents that he had stashed two blue backpacks containing 68 pounds of cocaine, likely intended for Lindsay Lohan, by the entrance to a camp near the Canadian border. He said he had returned the next day to find they were gone. Apparently, Carr was having some trouble convincing the "organization" he was working for that the backpacks had actually been stolen, and by someone other than Leroy Carr. So he had called to ask whether the agency would put out a news release saying that federal agents had found the drugs and confiscated them, thus putting him in a (slightly) better position with his employers.
The story did not say whether the agency did this (although I note that Carr is still alive), but it seems unlikely because the feds had not in fact found the drugs. Upon learning this, I assume that after an awkward silence or perhaps an inquiry into the weather and/or the agents' thoughts as to how the Packers might do this year, Mr. Carr then bid the agents farewell.
A Boy Scout found the backpacks two weeks later, and, being a Boy Scout, called the authorities. Finally having the evidence they needed, customs agents arrested Carr last weekend and charged him with possession with intent to distribute.
There does not appear to be a merit badge yet for Homeland Security. The closest matches I can find seem to be Emergency Preparedness, Law, Crime Prevention, or maybe Bugling, in case you need to alert federal agents to an unauthorized border crossing. Sadly, I note that the Beekeeping and Rabbit Raising badges have been discontinued, although it is hard to see how those would contribute at all to the War on Terror anyway.
