The US Border Patrol will use a drone similar to this Air Force version of the Predator
/ US Air Force photo
FORT DRUM (AP) -- U.S. border officials will temporarily base an unmanned surveillance aircraft at the U.S. Army's Fort Drum to patrol the U.S.-Canadian border along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway.
The area includes a crossing where cigarette and drug smuggling have been a continuing problem.
The remote-controlled Predator B flies as high as 50,000 feet, can remain aloft for up to 18 hours and takes both infrared and video of anything within a 25-mile radius.
Border officials have used the drones on the Mexican border for about five years. They began flying the first Predator on the northern border out of Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota in February.
The Fort Drum-based drone will launch from the post's Wheeler-Sack Air Field, 100 miles north of Syracuse.
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