29 indicted on pot charges on Onondaga Nation

SYRACUSE -- A federal grand jury has charged 29 people with smuggling thousands of pounds of marijuana into the United States from Canada and distributing it throughout the region from the Onondaga Indian Nation, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

It was the second time in less than a month federal authorities made a big drug sweep through an upstate New York Indian reservation. Last month, 34 people were charged with a drug-trafficking ring operating from the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation on the U.S.-Canadian border.

"High potency marijuana produced in Canada and then smuggled into the United States has increased largely because it is so profitable," said acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Baxter.