Pubdate: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 1999 The Dallas Morning News Contact: P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265 Fax: (972) 263-0456 Feedback: http://dmnweb.dallasnews.com/letters/ Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Forum: http://forums.dallasnews.com:81/webx Author: Tracey Eaton, The Dallas Morning News Note: This is the second part of a two part series, printed over two days. The first part was titled "Teen Traffickers." INNOCENCE LOST Authorities Struggle To Make Teen Smugglers' Punishment Fit The Crime EL PASO - The sudden rise in teenage drug smugglers along the Southwest border has stirred a debate over how to punish those who are caught. As it is, most get probation, not exactly a tough statement against illegal drugs, some critics say. "If it were up to me, I'd revamp the system to make it less attractive for juveniles to get involved with drug smugglers," said Rogelio Soto, chief of the Val Verde County Juvenile Probation Department in Del Rio. Indeed, something seems awry when kids who smuggle 50-pound loads of marijuana are let go. Yet jail and adult sentences often do juveniles more harm than good, youth advocates and others say. "You can't just lock up a kid. And you can't treat all of them exactly the same. It's all case by case," said Dave Contreras, a prosecutor in the El Paso County attorney's office. The challenge is separating the wide-eyed, innocent, remorseful kids from the hard-core offenders who have no desire to change their ways. Jorge, 16, falls into the latter category. He grew up poor in the rugged Mexican state of Michoacan but figured out one thing quick: marijuana means money. So he became a smuggler. Police first caught him moving a load of pot when he was 11 years old and locked him up for eight days, he said. Jorge kept at it, grew his own field of marijuana and made enough money to buy a house and a pickup truck all without doing serious jail time. Now serving 12 months at a Ciudad Juarez juvenile jail after police nabbed him with 63 pounds of marijuana, he's had time to think. And his mind is made up: Once he's 18 and faces the risk of adult jail time in Mexico, he said, he'll hire his own crew of boys to do his dirty work. "If you're not afraid and you have heart, everything comes out OK," he said. At the other end of the spectrum are kids like Rafael, also 16. Just a few weeks ago, he said, a childhood friend took him to meet some strangers who asked him to drive some drugs across the border for $300. He said he needed money to fix his car's broken window, so he agreed. Customs agents in El Paso stopped him and found 161 pounds of marijuana. He was sent to a juvenile jail and said he feels terrible for letting down his family, Jehovah's Witnesses. "I did them a bad turn," the teenager said, crying. "I feel so bad. I want to be forgiven for causing so much anguish." Like Rafael, many young smugglers are first-time offenders. Mr. Contreras recalled the case of a 15-year-old El Paso girl, a member of the National Honor Society. One day last year, she told her mother she was going to Juarez to buy Christmas decorations. Instead, she picked up "about 100 pounds of grass" and tried unsuccessfully to sneak it across the border. For her and others who "do something stupid and it's a first offense," jail isn't the answer, Mr. Contreras said. The girl finished probation early, completed community service and quickly got her life back together. Adult trafficking bosses, not juveniles, are the ones who ought to be punished, he said. "I wouldn't doubt it if they'd send their own mother across the border with drugs. Greed fuels the drug business." Smuggling organizations target El Paso because it is one of the busiest of the Southwest border's 39 crossing points. About 70 percent of the teen traffickers arrested there are boys. Few are "criminal types," said Karen Perez of the El Paso County Juvenile Probation Department. "We see a lot of kids with no criminal history and no real problems at home or at school." Apprehended juveniles who are U.S. citizens have outnumbered Mexicans 154 to 81 in El Paso since 1997. Mexicans arrested in Texas are most likely to be returned to their country to serve probation, saving the state an estimated $100,000 a year, officials say. Probation officer Rosa Mara Aguirre said 28 of the 29 juveniles she currently supervises in Juarez were caught smuggling drugs. "Many are students, and for them $100 is a lot of money. Just imagine how they react when someone offers them $700," she said. Teens found guilty of a felony drug offense in Texas must serve a minimum of one year in jail. Hard-core offenders 14 and older can be tried as adults and get up to 40 years in prison, though such cases are unusual. "Generally speaking, there is a lack of punishment for younger couriers," said U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "It's a bit of a dilemma." Of the 235 teen traffickers arrested from January 1997 to April 1999 in El Paso County, 98 received probation and 63 others had their cases dropped or dismissed. Only 17 were sent to juvenile detention. The rest of the cases were either pending, combined with other cases or otherwise disposed of, county statistics show. Mr. Contreras defended handing out probation, saying it's far from "a slap on the wrist." "Adult probation is a cakewalk, anyone will tell you. Juvenile probation is a lot more restrictive. You're not walking around scot-free. There's counseling, community service, court costs. A 15-year-old doing all that, it really sends a message home." Minors arrested in Mexico often serve a year in juvenile detention. Most return to their homes and rarely get into trouble again, said Cristina Ramos, a supervisor at a juarez teen jail. Adriana, 16, from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, said she smuggled out of sheer desperation. Her father had died at 61, after which her mother and eight brothers and sisters no longer had a source of income. A friend offered her a quick 6,000 pesos about $650. All she had to do was take a 46-pound bag of marijuana from Sinaloa, on the Pacific coast, to Juarez. Mexican police caught her at a highway checkpoint. "All I wanted to do was to help my mother," said Adriana, who is serving a 10-month sentence in a juvenile jail. "But landing in jail turned out to cost more than I was going to make. I just didn't think things through." Others begin planning their next smuggling operation even before leaving jail. "These kids make so much money. It's hard to convince them to work for less," Ms. Ramos said. "They can make $1,000 in a single day. I don't even make $1,000 in a month. They say, 'You're crazy for working for such low wages.'" Meantime, the river of drugs continues flowing northward. American anti-drug agents say 55 percent of the cocaine, half the marijuana and 20 percent of the heroin consumed in the United States is thought to come across the Southwest border. No one knows exactly how much is brought across by young smugglers, but agents doubt that it could be more than 15 percent of the several hundred tons of drugs that make it in every year. Many large-scale traffickers hide their illicit cargo in tractor-trailers, ships and freight containers, agents say. Agents say the number of juvenile trafficking arrests nationwide rose from 325 in 1997 to 449 last year, but it remains a rare offense. Only 3,045 or 2.9 percent of those in juvenile jails in 1997 nationwide were traffickers or drug dealers, the Department of Justice said. Murderers were only slightly less common, at 1.8 percent. Most incarcerated juveniles were in for theft, robbery, assault and parole or probation violations. In Texas, fewer than 2 percent of youths sent to juvenile detention centers are classified as "controlled-substance dealers," which includes both traffickers and street dealers, statistics show. Still, U.S. agents expect the number of arrests to continue to rise. During one night along the southern frontier in El Paso, veteran Border Patrol Supervisor John Hubert was short 11 agents and had just 24 men and women to watch nine miles of border. "Our operation, well, you could equate it to a prevent defense" a strategy football teams resort to when the other team seems to be on the verge of scoring. "We're still in the game. But there's no doubt in my mind someone is coming across with dope right now. We get the ones we see." Some traffickers sneak across the border, then make their way north through the 125-year-old labyrinth of storm drains and sewers that crisscrosses El Paso. Others play the odds, driving across and hoping customs agents won't catch them. "There's no shortage of folks in Juarez who will drive a van from El Paso to Chicago for $500 or $1,000," Border Patrol Supervisor David Ham said. "The money's there, and there's a reluctance to prosecute. I don't foresee an end to it." Many teens see little wrong with smuggling drugs, especially marijuana, said Ms. Perez of the El Paso County Juvenile Probation Department. "So many kids see smoking marijuana as a fairly normal thing," she said. "They don't think much more about bringing marijuana across the border than they would a load of cigarettes." Expecting law enforcement to come up with a miracle solution isn't realistic, said J.J. Lopez, chief Customs inspector in El Paso. Teachers, parents, police all of society must get involved, he said. "We'd better be willing to pay the price, whether that's waiting a little longer in line when crossing the border, getting involved with your children, whatever it takes," he said. "We're dealing not only with the well-being of our children, but a whole nation. That's what's at stake." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake