Source: The Des Moines Register Author: Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times Pubdate: Sunday, December 14, 1997 Page: AA Contact: WELCOME TO THE HEARTLAND OF DRUG TRAFFIC States Like Iowa, Wyoming And Kansas Are At The Crossroads Of The Nation's Top Smuggling Corridors. Cheyenne, Wyo. Here in the land of wideopen spaces and clean living, as well as in other communities across the midsection of America, Mexican drug cartels are opening new and lucrative markets for contraband brought from beyond the Rio Grande. Eager to create ambitious distribution points, the cartels are successfully targeting traditional Godfearing communities like Cheyenne and Casper in Wyoming and other cities in such states as Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. They are bringing with them the drugs that long have plagued larger urban centers across the country. Some years back, gangs brought driveby shootings and drug dealing to the American heartland. But "our greatest problem today is illegal aliens and drugs," said Tom Pagel, director of the state Department of Criminal Investigation in Cheyenne. "The vast majority of this is being transported up from Mexico, and we're getting our butts kicked over it." Smuggling vast quantities of methamphetamine and hustling their standard cocaine shipments, the Mexican drug criminals are aggressively trying to outmarket the Colombia cartels they have replaced. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a key drugpipeline state, calls it "absolutely critical" that Mexico clean up its side of the border. International Impact Taking over the drug routes once run by Columbians, the Mexicans' influence and the level of public corruption in Mexico have become major sources of friction between that country and the United States. In October, the U.S. government reported that more than 40 percent of the illegal immigrants who were deported to Mexico last year had first been convicted of drug charges in U.S. courts. Those numbers fit an overall pattern of an increase in crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Never Seen Before The offenses are often occurring in cities and towns where, in the past, the worst crime was likely to be transporting stolen cattle. The situation has fueled a sharp increase in teenage narcotics use, and the courts and drug treatment centers are seeing more kids more strung out than ever before. Kathleen Sloan, a drug treatment specialist here, is surprised at the number of kids and how young they are, some just 14 who pass through her doors these days. "It began about two years ago," she said. "What was really noticeable was that it wasn't experimental drug use any more. In the last eight months it's gotten to where it seems out of control." The upsurge in drugs also has prompted a keen awareness in places like Cheyenne that law enforcement must act decisively to reverse the trend. Already, police here are taking Spanishlanguage training, and federal prosecutors have recently put away a Mexican national working as a major drug "primo" in Wyoming. In Washington, officials have been saying for some months that Middle America is no longer an outpost garrisoned off from the drug menace. They warn that as long as there is a demand, even in places as small and distant as Cheyenne, there someday will come a supplier. White House Drug Policy Director Barry McCaffrey said recently, "Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, the Rocky Mountain heartland of America, are increasingly becoming populated with Mexican drug trafficking organizations and violent gangs using this major transportation crossroads as a transshipment center." Federal drug enforcement officials say that Interstate 25 is a historic smuggling route north out of El Paso, Texas, and that the nation's main eastwest corridors, Interstate 70 and Interstate 80 which runs through Iowa are increasingly becoming drug pipelines. Cheyenne is located at the cloverleaf of Interstates 25 and 80. The drugs move north and east; the money flows west and south. Sen. Charles Grassley, RIa., head of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, said it was "absolutely critical" to pressure Mexico to clean up its side of the border. In Des Moines, Polk County District Associate Judge Carol Egly has noticed in the past four years an increase in the number of drug users. "We're getting many that are totally whacked out and crazy," she said. She also has seen a growing number of Mexican nationals appearing on drugpushing charges in her courtroom, unable to speak English or understand the charges against them. And yet, she said, they realize that even if they go to prison and then are deported to Mexico, it will not keep them from returning. "Why Des Moines? Why Iowa?" Egly asks herself. "I still don't know the answer." Meth's Long Reach Here in Wyoming, one of the least populated states in the country, police chalked up 18 arrests on drug, illegalimmigrant and firearms charges in just one 12day span in October. Thirteen of the suspects were Mexican nationals. At the same time, drug use had climbed steeply, primarily for methaphetamine, the most common narcotic from Mexico that teenagers and young adults across the Plains are smoking or shooting into their arms. The drug is particularly popular because it gives a fast and lasting high, and sharply curbs one's appetite. In 1993, "meth" accounted for on 18 percent of Wyoming's drugrelated arrests. So far this year, the figure is 46 percent. Not Safe Anymore Iowa Judge Egly's sentiments why us? why here? are being echoed all across Middle America, the part of America that, for a time, thought is was safe. Said Stephen Miller, deputy director of Wyoming's Division of Criminal Investigation: "This is hitting us all in the face all at once. Good Lord, what is happening here in Wyoming?"