Pubdate: Mon, 30 Dec 2002
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2002 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily 
home delivery circulation area.
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

NUMBER OF HISPANIC DRUG TRAFFICKERS IS UP

Hundreds of immigrant drug traffickers have flooded North Carolina in the 
past seven years, an increase linked to the growth of Hispanic immigrants 
in the state, authorities say.

At the end of 1995, just 10 Hispanics were in state prisons for 
drug-trafficking convictions. As of October, that number had risen to 400, 
according to the N.C. Department of Correction.

In Wake County, where Hispanics make up 5.4 percent of the total 
population, they accounted for 46 percent of drug trafficking arrests in 
2002, the Wake County Sheriff's Office reported.

"Mexican drug trade organizations (in North Carolina) have essentially 
taken over the drugtrafficking business from other groups," said Kerri 
Pepoy, an intelligence analyst for the National Drug Intelligence Center. 
Nationally, nearly half of all people charged with federal drug offenses 
between 1984 and 1999 were Hispanic, according to a 1999 U.S. Department of 
Justice report.

Federal drug-enforcement officials say that about 65 percent of all the 
cocaine that enters this country and the bulk of marijuana are brought in 
from Mexico.

Hispanic leaders say that drug dealers lure poor immigrants into their 
service with money and worry that the increase in drug arrests could paint 
an unfair picture of the growing immigrant community.

North Carolina's Hispanic population has increased 394 percent since 1990, 
with about 65 percent arriving from Mexico, according to Census reports.

"To my knowledge, the majority of people coming here are just hard-working 
individuals trying to support their families," said Andrea Bazan-Manson, 
the executive director of El Pueblo Inc., a Hispanic advocacy group in 
Raleigh. "Drug trafficking is not a part of that equation. Any community 
has a criminal element, and I think it's important to separate the 
immigrants that are here working from that element."

An immigrant can make $2,000 to $3,000 by carrying drugs from North 
Carolina to Texas, Pepoy said.

"They aren't going to make that kind of money picking apples or plucking 
chickens," he said.

Mexican traffickers have gained control of the state's cocaine and 
marijuana distribution by increasing their volume while undercutting 
competing groups' prices, said the National Drug Intelligence Center.

The North American Free Trade Agreement, which led to the loss of thousands 
of textile jobs in North Carolina, has also played a role in the drug 
trade, said David Gaddis, an assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. 
Drug Enforcement Agency's operations in North Carolina.

"The free trade agreement made it possible for the movement of thousands of 
containers across the U.S.-Mexican border," Gaddis said. "It's common for 
drugs to be woven into those legitimate cargoes."

Mexican drug lords work with Colombian cocaine suppliers to transport the 
drug into the country as powder, Pepoy said. Once the powder cocaine 
reaches the retailers, it's cooked and sold on the streets as crack.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager