Pubdate: Fri, 28 Sep 2001
Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Copyright: 2001 The Orange County Register
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321
Author: Ben Fox, The Associated Press

EXTRA SECURITY COULD MAKE SMUGGLERS DESPERATE

Drug seizures are down 80% in the two weeks since the terrorist attacks, as 
suppliers sit tight. But they can't afford to wait forever.

SAN DIEGO -- America's war on terrorism appears to be helping the war on 
drugs, at least initially, as wary smugglers from Mexico avoid the risk of 
shipping their drugs across the border.

Under tight security with many more vehicle searches, the amount of drugs 
seized fell 80 percent along the 1,962-mile U.S.-Mexico border in the two 
weeks after the terrorist attacks, compared with the same period a year ago.

"The drug dealers, they're not stupid. They realize it would be risky to 
ship their stuff right now," said Kevin Bell, a spokesman for the U.S. 
Customs Service in Washington.

No one is suggesting drugs have become scarce in the United States. But 
authorities have long known that smugglers post spotters near border points 
to gauge security. Authorities expect the flow to surge again when the 
traffickers spot an opportunity, said Dean Boyd, a Customs official who 
analyzed seizure records along the border.

"The traffickers in Mexico don't want to sit on their product too long," 
Boyd said. "They've got to get it to market and pay their people."

Marijuana smugglers may not be able to wait much longer. The end of 
September marks their harvest season in Mexico, and dealers will be eager 
to move old supplies out of storage to make room for the fresh crop, said 
Jim Molesa, a Drug Enforcement Administration official in Phoenix.

"It's getting moldy," Molesa said of the old crop. "They're desperately 
going to want to get rid of it."

But the temporary drop after the attacks is significant, officials said.

Inspectors at California's border crossings seized 4,179 pounds of 
marijuana, cocaine and other drugs Sept. 11-23. That was an 86 percent 
decline from the same 13-day period last year.

The story was the same to a lesser degree at other crossings: a 73 percent 
drop in the border sector that covers Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas, 
and a 53 percent decline for South Texas.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service reported fewer illegal 
immigrants trying to gain entry as well. A typical weekend at the San 
Ysidro crossing, the world's busiest border crossing, would result in 500 
people being turned back or detained. Last weekend, it was 168.

The Rev. Luis Kendzierski, a Catholic priest who runs a shelter in Tijuana 
where men can stay up to two weeks while waiting to enter the United 
States, said would-be immigrants are waiting longer before risking the 
crossing.

"What I'm hearing is that nobody is making it through the checkpoints," 
Kendzierski said.

Within hours of the Sept. 11 attacks, Customs and INS inspectors were 
stopping and searching every vehicle and pedestrian that entered the United 
States from Mexico. Normally, agents question everyone but conduct searches 
only when they become suspicious.

They also added a metal detector at the pedestrian crossing in San Diego 
and author ized more overtime to increase the number of inspectors to move 
through the lines of people and cars with dogs trained to sniff out drugs.

These measures are in addition to an array of high-tech tools employed 
throughout the border, including X-ray-like devices that scan long- haul 
truck loads, digital license-plate readers, and scopes designed to find 
contraband inside gas tanks.

Drug smugglers can avoid the ports of entry altogether and try to get their 
goods into the United States by alternate routes - by boat or overland 
through the desert wilderness between the border crossings.

But these methods also present challenges. The Coast Guard has been 
searching all foreign vessels entering certain U.S. ports, including San 
Diego, and Customs surveillance planes have been patrolling the Southwest 
border.

If the heavy security remains in force, officials believe the smugglers 
will begin taking risks. "Eventually they are going to try to get it across 
somehow," Boyd said.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens