Securing New York's Northern Border Against Criminal Threats

0:00 Speaker 1 What’s going on in law enforcement? With us today is John Sarkone, and he’s the first assisted U.S. attorney at the Northern District of New York. And, well, John Sarkone, give us an update of how safety is going on in your district. I mean, how many counties are you responsible for upstate?

0:20 Speaker 2 John, thanks again for having me on. It’s always an honor and a pleasure to join you and your audience. I am the chief federal law enforcement officer for 32 counties upstate that go all the way up to the northern border, which, by the way, we had an historic incident.

0:36 meeting of all days, Election Day, in Messina, New York, with the Akwesasne tribal leaders from the St. Regis tribe. We had representatives from Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton’s team were there. We had the Director of Bureau of Indian Affairs was present, Charles Addington, and we had a representative from Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen’s office, along with all

1:06 of the federal law enforcement agency partners. We met because, John, this is a major threat to national security up on the northern border. As we know, the southern border is virtually closed, but the northern border is not. And we have to work together with our partners in Canada and also with the tribal leaders. We made some progress that day,

1:32 and I am optimistic that we will be able to get the cooperation from the tribal leaders that we need to– secure our border.

1:42 Speaker 1 In Canada, the Mounties are cooperating and everybody’s cooperating with each other?

1:52 Speaker 2 Yes, John, they are. There’s diplomatic issues that are also at play here with regard to geographic inhibitors that do not permit our Custom Border Patrol or our Coast Guard to cross into Canadian borders if they’re armed. And that has been a huge impediment because of these drug traffickers and smugglers and our enemies abroad are slipping into the

2:23 country through that, through that part of the, of the, of the sea.

2:28 Speaker 1 And the bad guys have big, big type weapons.

2:34 Speaker 2 Of course they do, but we can’t go into the waters to get them. They can get onto the tribal lands that border New York, and there are seven unguarded roads, paved roads, that go right into New York State. So it’s a major problem, and I’ve been leading this delegation since last June, At the highest levels of the federal government,

3:03 I’ve briefed on this, and all eyes are on it. Let me just say, John, you know, obviously elections have consequences. And unfortunately, this election cycle here in New York, I don’t anticipate bail laws being repealed. And that has been a major problem, especially in the upstate communities with these drug traffickers and human traffickers and gangbangers. So I just

3:33 want to let New Yorkers know that the mission is the same. Every day we are out there, we are going to get these drug traffickers, these violent criminals, these gangbangers, these pedophiles, and we’re going to prosecute them. Because if they are left for the state to deal with, they would be released. pending whatever, and they’re back on the

3:56 street committing crimes and harming people. So that mission is not going to stop, and I just wanted to assure everybody and your listeners that it’s not just in my district, it’s also in Jamie McDonald’s Southern District and Joe Nacella in the Eastern District and Michael DiGiacomo in the Western District. Mission, the same.

4:16 Speaker 1 Well, John Sarkone in the Northern District of the. Thank you so much for the great job you’re doing, and thank you for keeping people safe. And we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

4:30 Speaker 2 Great. Thank you, John. Thank you.