Drug Arrests At Border Checkpoints Challenged In Court

 

PLYMOUTH, NH (AP) – The American Civil Liberties Union is asking a judge to suppress evidence against 18 people charged with drug possession after being stopped and searched by customs and border protection agents last summer in northern New Hampshire.

The group was arrested on Interstate 93 in Woodstock in two checkpoints. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped hundreds of cars about 90 miles from the Canadian border.

The ACLU argues New Hampshire’s Constitution is more protective of privacy than the U.S. Constitution, and that evidence from federal searches can’t be used in state prosecutions if it was gathered in a way that violates the state constitution.

Border protection officials have the authority to set up checkpoints within 100 miles of any U.S. “external boundary.” New Hampshire’s checkpoints were the first since 2012.

A hearing was scheduled Thursday in Plymouth.