Scuba diver arrested, accused of smuggling 8 pounds of pot across U.S.-Canada border

A man equipped with scuba gear was arrested after allegedly hauling 8 pounds of marijuana into the U.S., crossing the U.S.-Canada border underwater, according to border officials.

The Sun News reports that the man, whose name has not been released by authorities, made the swim in the dead of night.

“If there’s a freighter coming through there, there’s no way for a freighter to stop. That’s a very, very dangerous thing to do,” Greg Grogan, a public affairs officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told the newspaper.

After a tip from a local resident, surveillance cameras with the Operational Integration Center at Selfridge Air National Guard Base spotted the diver and noted that he appeared to be towing a heavy object behind him.

Border patrol guards located the man as he was crossing from Ontario in Canada into Marine City, Mich., at around 1 a.m.

“We picked up his image on our camera and could see he was carrying something,” Grogan said.

Despite the inherent risks involved in his journey, the man reportedly made it into Michigan unscathed. However, border agents quickly apprehended him and watertight containers containing the pot.

Grogan said this was the first incident he had ever heard of where someone tried to smuggle pot underwater.

Ironically, the Canadian man probably wouldn’t have had much trouble transporting marijuana through legal means.

Medical marijuana is legal in both Ontario and Michigan, one of 20 U.S. states that have passed a law legalizing medical marijuana. Patients who are registered and qualified to use medical marijuana in the state are allowed to grow their own medical pot or obtain it from a caregiver.