Pubdate: Sun, 19 Dec 2004
Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC)
Copyright: 2004 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.charleston.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Author: Schuyler Kropf And Glenn Smith

CRIMINALS TRY TO BLEND IN ON INTERSTATE 95

Police officers stood alongside Interstate 95 in Dorchester County as
a jittery driver stammered and stumbled, struggling to explain why he
had been following the car in front of him so closely.

Something about the man just didn't seem right.

He told officers he was a Canadian on his way to Florida for vacation.
He had not brought a single change of clothes with him, but he had
taken the time to place air fresheners all over the inside of his car.
He initially claimed the trunk didn't open, but deputies found
otherwise, popping the latch to reveal two large duffel bags inside.

"Both of the bags were flat out full of marijuana," Dorchester County
Sheriff's Deputy Joe Burnette said of last year's 81-pound find.Of the
thousands of vehicles that travel I-95 daily, police estimate that as
many as 1 out of 10 carry illegal cargo of some kind, mostly drugs.
But there's much more: wanted felons, guns, bomb-making factories and
rolling methamphetamine labs cruise along I-95, where they hope to
blend in among truckers, commuters and families on vacation.

Passing through nine counties in South Carolina, the state's golden
artery for criminals and contraband represents a challenge for law
enforcement agencies to patrol and a potential bonanza for those
entrusted with that task. Seizures of drug money along the interstate
pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into some police budgets annually.

A federal program allows law enforcement agencies to keep up to 80
percent of any drug-related money they seize. That money must be used
for equipment or programs to fight drugs, but agencies have liberal
discretion in meeting that mandate. There are big bucks at stake here.
In the 2003-2004 federal fiscal year, $4.7 million in drug money was
seized along I-95, according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration.

"It acts as a main artery from south Florida to the Northeast," said
John Ozaluk, agent in charge of the DEA's South Carolina offices.
"It's really like fishing out there. You don't know if that car you're
stopping has $1 million or $1,500 to buy one kilo."

Colleton County sheriff's deputies have seized more than $11 million
in drug money since they began patrols along the interstate in 1998.
One traffic stop alone last year brought in more than $1 million
packed into a weighty suitcase. Drug money has paid for everything
from laptop computers for police to security upgrades at the county
jail. The county hasn't had to spend taxpayer money to buy new
cruisers in more than six years, said Maj. Steve Bazzle.

"If it wasn't for that coming in, we would still be a lot smaller
equipment-wise," he said.

Drug operations have become so lucrative that some agencies jump their
borders to get a piece of the action. Charleston police, for example,
send officers nearly 70 miles away to patrol a swath of I-95 in the
town of Santee, under an agreement that has netted the city more than
$80,000 in the past 30 months.

That's considered a fraction of what passes through. Just last month,
troopers with the S.C. Highway Patrol's Aggressive Criminal
Enforcement unit seized 11 kilos of heroin worth $15 million during a
traffic stop in Dorchester County.

"The drug trade is like UPS or anything marketed by freight," said
Dorchester County Sheriff's Lt. David Moore. "Atlanta is a hub;
Charlotte is a hub. They have big hubs, and they move it out to a
small hub. The weakest point in their chain is ... when they are
moving it down the road."

The adage in law enforcement is that the drugs go north, while the
money heads south. For that reason, some departments are said to focus
their efforts on southbound traffic.

Officers prowl the interstate, stopping drivers for traffic
violations. They then speak with the vehicle's occupants to get some
idea of where the travelers come from and where they are going.

Most people are a little nervous when stopped by police, but some
simply radiate anxiety. They stammer, sweat, swallow constantly and
display other tics. They mix up their stories or forget key details,
several officers said. Police then are likely to ask for consent to
search the vehicle or bring in a drug-sniffing dog.

"Everyone that is running drugs is living a lie," said Summerville
Police Sgt. Doug Wright, a member of the Interstate Criminal
Enforcement Team, a unit that patrols an 18-mile stretch of I-95 in
Dorchester County. A drug-runner's cover story "has all sorts of holes
through it," he said.

Summerville police took in more than $174,000 in 2003 by having one
officer on the ICE Team. The Charleston County Sheriff's office, with
two deputies assigned to the team, received about $377,000 in seized
drug money that year, authorities said. Berkeley County does not
participate.

Motorists are not stopped unless there is a moving violation. Still,
the stops are not without controversy. Orangeburg lawyer Byron Gipson
has defended several drivers accused of carrying contraband on I-95.
Gipson said many of his clients are people of color, including blacks,
Hispanics and Dominicans.

"The problem, as I see it, is the types of folks being stopped," he
said.

King Downing, national coordinator for the American Civil Liberties
Union's campaign against racial profiling, said drug stops made on the
pretext of traffic violations "open the door for racial profiling" and
allow police to act on suspicions rather than fact.

"To act on hunches or nervousness or to take a refusal of consent to
search as suspicious is far outside the Constitution," he said.

Though few police agencies track such stops by race, officers strongly
deny that racial profiling plays a role. They said stops are done by
the book and hold up in court.

Criminals are well aware that they must pass through a gauntlet of
police officers to reach their destinations. On more than one occasion
police have found highway road maps in cars with notations on them
reading "cops at this location, drive around."

"They know more about us than we do about them," Bazzle, of Colleton
County, said.
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