The U.S. is close to designating New York counties near the Akwesasne Mohawk territory a "high intensity drug trafficking area" to fight the flow of marijuana from Canada.

Derek Champagne, the district attorney for Franklin County, N.Y., said he's been pushing for that HIDTA federal designation in his region for a long time, and now it seems close at hand.

"You know it's a blessing and a curse," he said. "On the one hand they're saying this area is significant on a national level for the amount of drugs flowing through here. On the other hand it's never good to be labelled as something negative."

Franklin County borders the Akwesasne reserve, which spans both international and Ontario-Quebec borders — a location exploited by northbound tobacco smugglers and southbound marijuana smugglers.

U.S. senators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Representative John D. McHugh introduced legislation in Congress in September that would cover Clinton, Franklin, Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties with the HIDTA designation.

Chauncey Parker, head of the HIDTA that covers New York City and New Jersey, said many of the drugs reaching his area can be traced back to Akwesasne and Franklin County.

"It's a huge source of supply for both the hydroponic marijuana and the ecstasy, and it directly affects New York City and far beyond that."

If the new legislation passes, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency bureaus will open in Clinton and Franklin counties, bringing a full-time drug intelligence officers there, Parker said.

Those officers will aim to identify and infiltrate the trafficking organizations on both sides of the border to deal with smugglers who skirt border posts using local knowledge of back roads, islands and waterways, he added.