Michigan border stop busts driver with 20 kilos of poppy pods, feds say

Port Huron, Michigan, border authorities say a Canadian truck driver was caught moving 20 kilos of dried opium poppy pods across the border, signaling a smuggling case. Vaibhav Saxena, 40, Indian-born Canadian citizen living in Brampton, Ontario, was charged June 3 with smuggling goods from the United States, a ten-year felony. Homeland Security Investigations tracked activity from January through March 2026 at a Mobil gas station on Wadhams Road, where an Ontario-plate truck met a Michigan-plated vehicle and transferred multiple large boxes to Saxena’s rig before crossing at the Blue Water Bridge. The pattern continued in April, with a Walgreens stop and an outbound inspection.