One of the two Black Hawk helicopters chartered by the Canadian government to patrol our border with the United States touched down in Langley, BC on Friday.
The aircraft posed for a photo-op before taking off again, en route to the nearby 49th parallel.
Speaking to reporters at Langley Regional Airport, RCMP Supt. Bert Ferreira touted the Black Hawk's ability to "transport our officers across distances in a short amount of time," and "pick up spots that are not picked up by our members" on the ground.
Asst. Cmmr. Dave Teboul emphasized that when it comes to illegal commodities such as drugs and guns, most of the traffic was northbound.
"The claims that fentanyl is going south from Canada into the US is not accurate," he said, adding that "the addition of this tool ... is gonna help us interdict — on both sides of the border — the movement of these illegal commodities north and south."
As of now, Canada only has two Black Hawks to patrol nearly 9,000 km of border. One will be based in Ottawa and cover the east, while the other will be based in Winnipeg and cover the west. The latter is slated to be in the Langley area for the next few days.
"We're doing a lot of work to have our own bird here," Ferreira said when asked if more choppers were on their way," adding that their wishes would be granted "in relatively short order."
The addition of the helicopters to Canada's arsenal was announced in January amid growing pressure to better protect the border. Teboul noted that while the aircraft would be operationally beneficial, the decision to contract them was "also about optics."
"It's also about deterrence," he added. "It's about surveillance, it's about preventing criminal activity on our borders where it's happening southbound, or — these days — northbound."