Pubdate: Mon, 12 Feb 2001
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Copyright: 2001 Pulitzer Publishing Co.
Contact:  P.O. Box 26807, Tucson, AZ 85726-6807
Fax: (520) 573-4141
Website: http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/
Author: Ignacio Ibarra

WAR ON DRUGS

Border Battles Escalating

Smugglers Getting More Brazen, Violent As Law Officers Crack Down

BISBEE - Smugglers trying to move a bumper marijuana crop across the 
fortified border are taking brazen risks and fighting violently with law 
officers - often on public roads.

This hotter drug war in Southern Arizona has put law officers on edge, 
rural school-bus drivers on alert and border travelers at some risk.

In the last four months, smugglers facing a bigger gantlet of law officers 
have shot at them, tried to run them down, sprinkled roads with spikes and 
crashed vehicles through official ports of entry into the United States.

"Once you have a narcotics smuggler who is trapped at the port of entry, he 
or she will do anything to get out of that trap," said Donna De La Torre, 
director of field operations for the U.S. Customs Service in Arizona.

"Thus far, we've had no injuries to the public, but that risk exists."

One 15-year-old, driving a Jeep stuffed with 800 pounds of marijuana, 
sideswiped an innocent bystander's vehicle at the Douglas port of entry on 
Jan. 15. The same teen also crashed the border just 11 days earlier, in a 
pot-filled Crown Victoria.

At least seven times since Oct. 1, vehicles packed with marijuana raced 
north through the southbound lanes at the Douglas entry, despite speed 
bumps and plastic barriers.

Other pot-runners speeding from pursuing officers have forced traffic off 
state highways near the San Pedro River, a popular recreation spot for 
Southern Arizonans.

Among those who barely got out of the way were a young pregnant woman and 
her husband, who were driving on Arizona 92 south of Sierra Vista.

The oncoming smuggler who almost struck them on Oct. 18 had driven over 
spikes put down by law officers. He kept speeding on the shredded tires, as 
his rims gouged a pair of six-mile-long furrows down the highway. The truck 
- - hauling more than a ton of marijuana - spewed sparks and cinders as cars 
swerved out of its way.

In the Palominas area along Arizona 92, 15 miles southeast of Sierra Vista, 
several chases and clashes took place in recent months, as smugglers moved 
what U.S. intelligence reports describe as a banner marijuana crop due to 
rains in Mexico.

Two schools are nearby, and school buses and pedestrian children use the 
rural roads.

"The high-speed chases up and down Highway 92 are, of course, a concern, 
with buses pulling in and pulling out onto the highway," said Kathy Moore, 
superintendent of Palominas School District. "But knowing that, the Border 
Patrol, Customs and the Sheriff's Department have identified that as a 
concern and are aware that these two schools are out there."

Moore said the 192-square-mile district has expanded its bus system to 
minimize students' walks. Drivers watch for suspicious activity and report 
it from their radio-equipped buses, she added.

Parents say they know there's a potential problem, but some feel secure 
because they've seen the number of Border Patrol agents, sheriff's deputies 
and other officers grow dramatically.

"Things are really pretty safe here. The Border Patrol is everywhere," said 
Kresent Gurtler, parent of 9- and 11-year-olds.

In the last three years, the U.S. Border Patrol has grown to nearly 500 
agents at Douglas and 150 at Naco, and other agencies also guard the border 
areas.

They've seized hundreds of thousands of pounds of pot each year as a result 
- - and say they've been rewarded by the Catch-22 that drug-runners are now 
more dangerous.

"It's harder for smugglers to move their stuff through areas they used to 
use in Naco and Douglas, because of the border wall and the Border Patrol 
presence," said Lee Morgan, who heads Customs investigations in Douglas.

"They've got to go out and around, and, in doing so, they're going to get 
more violent because they've got to get their stuff through - that's their 
job."

Frustration over lost cargos and profits is the most likely reason for 113 
incidents of violence reported against anti-drug law officers in Arizona 
last year, said Lt. Penny Gillette, head of intelligence for the state's 
federally supported High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area network.

The attacks included rock-throwing, physical assaults, armed assaults, 
vehicle assaults and laser-beam targeting of agents along the border, 
Gillette said. The overall number of attacks was about the same as the year 
before, but what's new is the severity, several officers said.

"Smugglers are more willing to use weapons in situations where they weren't 
before," Gillette said. "You have to remember that some of these loads are 
quite large and very valuable."

Most agencies estimate the value of marijuana at about $1,000 a pound.

"It used to be the average load here was 500 pounds. That's nothing 
anymore," said Lt. Ruben Saavedra, head of Cochise County's Border Alliance 
Group, a multiagency task force against drugs.

The nightly cat-and-mouse of smuggling has turned into a 24-hour-a-day 
operation, said Saavedra.

There have been reports, classified as unsubstantiated, that 
drug-trafficking organizations have moved snipers armed with long rifles 
into the area to "take out" the opposition.

There are other reports that smugglers are using chase vehicles whose 
drivers are instructed to eliminate the officer in the event of a pursuit.

When confronted by police, load drivers have turned their four-wheel-drive 
stash boxes into weapons, aiming them at agents or their vehicles. Their 
narco-accomplices have dragged road spikes and other barriers across roads 
and used fake police grille lights to shake off pursuit.

Sometimes, the smugglers can't distinguish between civilians and undercover 
law enforcement, so there is a corresponding threat to people living or 
visiting rural areas along the border.

But if the smugglers are organized and determined, so is the Border 
Alliance Group.

Beginning Wednesday morning, U.S. Customs agents and sheriff's deputies 
seized more than a ton of marijuana in three separate busts.

Along the way, they tracked through rugged mountains, surprised a group of 
men loading bundles into a Chevy Suburban a mile north of the border and 
called in air support from no less than a Customs Black Hawk helicopter.

As Morgan said of the narcos: "If they're going to get more violent, we'll 
just have to escalate to meet them."
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D