Pubdate: Tue, 06 Nov 2001
Source: Daily Iowan, The (IA Edu)
Section: Nation/World
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Iowan
Contact:  http://www.dailyiowan.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/937
Author: Chris Roberts (AP)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

DRUG SMUGGLING GOING TO POT

EL PASO, Texas -- At the Santa Fe International Bridge in El Paso, customs 
inspectors looking for terrorists are flinging open hoods and trunks, 
knocking on body panels, and getting down on their hands and knees to peek 
under vehicles.

Last week, inspectors dug out nearly 50 packages of pot, weighing a total 
of 70 pounds, from a false gas tank in a shiny Toyota Tercel.

The seizure illustrates what Customs Service and Border Patrol officials 
are seeing: Drug smugglers are getting back to business -- and drug 
seizures are up sharply -- after a lull prompted by the stepped-up security 
along the U.S-Mexican border that followed the terrorist attacks.

Investigators believe smugglers are trying to push more drugs across the 
border to make up lost profits and are getting caught by the tighter security.

"They're desperate," said Carlos Quevedo, a spokesman for the Border 
Patrol's McAllen, Texas, sector. "They don't even care if it's daylight. 
They just want to get lucky."

Before Sept. 11, most vehicles were waved through border checkpoints. Now, 
because border officials went to the highest level of alert, nearly every 
vehicle gets looked over. Inspections include an examination of the trunk 
and the engine compartment. In the two weeks immediately following the 
terrorist attacks, drug seizures along the 1,962-mile U.S.-Mexico border 
fell 80 percent compared with the same period last year. But the trend has 
since reversed.

Drug smugglers "decided to wait it out, hoping it would go back to the way 
it was, and that hasn't happened," said Vincent Bond, a customs spokesman 
in Southern California. So "they decided to risk the increased scrutiny."

Customs Service seizures of marijuana between Sept. 24 and Oct. 25 are up 
anywhere from 58 percent along the South Texas border to 394 percent in 
Arizona. Altogether, more than 32,000 pounds were confiscated in Texas, New 
Mexico, and Arizona. In Southern California, where the records are kept 
differently, an 11 percent increase in marijuana seizures was recorded in 
the first 25 days of October; nearly 31,500 pounds were seized.

The situation is similar at the U.S.-Canadian border, though the seizures 
are in far smaller quantities than at the Southwest border, said Dean Boyd, 
a customs spokesman in Washington. The Canadian border is not as closely 
guarded as the nation's southern edge.

Smuggling from Canada often involves a potent marijuana referred to as 
"B.C. bud" because some of it is grown in British Columbia. Customs 
officials seized 980 pounds of the pot, worth as much as $8 million, on 
Oct. 3 in Blaine, Wash., Boyd said.

Marijuana smugglers are in a bind because the end of September marked their 
harvest and dealers are eager to move old supplies, Boyd said. Increased 
scrutiny of U.S. airspace means flying drugs into the United States is no 
longer a good option, he said. "They owe people, and they need to get it to 
market," Boyd said.

Cocaine is the second most commonly seized drug, though in far less gaudy 
amounts. For every Southwest border state except Arizona, seizures 
increased between Sept. 24 and Oct. 25 compared with the same period last year.

In South Texas, Customs officials have netted 378 percent more cocaine. "I 
guess they're trying to move what they held back," said Rick Pauza, a 
customs spokesman in South Texas.

Bond said smugglers entering Southern California are picking the busiest 
checkpoints -- "trying to be a very small needle in a very large haystack."

Others are searching for ways around official checkpoints. In Arizona, 
smugglers are using backpacks or pack horses to avoid official border 
crossings. That means Border Patrol agents also are picking up narcotics.