Pubdate: Sun, 15 Jul 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Brian Skoloff, Associated Press

SEARCHING FOR CONTRABAND KEEPS AUTHORITIES ON TOES

Crime: At The Intersection Of Two Interstate Highways, Arkansas 
Patrolmen Engage In A High-Stakes Game Of Hide-And-Seek.

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. -- On his hands and knees, Sgt. Scott Fraley 
crawls over boxes of cherries stacked eight high in a refrigerated 
trailer.

His partner, Sammy Brown, a private first-class, talks to the driver 
of the truck.

"You hauling anything illegal? Marijuana . . . cocaine?" Brown asks. 
"No, sir!" comes a nervous reply.

Brown looks the man up and down, watching body language, then directs 
his eyes toward Fraley, who is holding up a ripe, red cherry in his 
black-gloved hand.

Without a word between them, Fraley and Brown allow the rig to move on.

"You can close it up now," Fraley tells the driver as the officer 
jumps down out of the trailer. "Drive carefully."

On any given day, 3,000 trucks roll through this Interstate 40 
eastbound weigh station, hauling tons of produce, chickens, clothing, 
and at times, illegal immigrants, drugs, guns and dirty money.

More drugs are seized at this weigh station than any other highway 
stop in Arkansas. Fraley and Brown, considered among the best of the 
Arkansas Highway Police, work together to stem the drug flow, one rig 
at a time.

"These two guys are top-notch," Lt. Joe Upton says. "If I were in a 
gunfight, I'd want them with me. When we're dealing with the quantity 
of drugs we find, we're making a lot of enemies. These people will 
kill you for a joint. That's the kind of people we're dealing with."

America's highways are the veins for the flow of drugs nationwide. 
Interstate 40, stretching from California to North Carolina, and 
Interstate 55, which runs from Chicago to New Orleans, cross at West 
Memphis.

The Drug Interdiction Assistance Program of the U.S. Department of 
Transportation recorded 113,535 pounds of marijuana, 18,675 pounds of 
cocaine and $18.5 million in cash seized from commercial vehicles on 
the nation's highways between September 1998 and August 1999.

Though commercial vehicles were involved in only 6% of highway drug 
seizures nationally, they carried 60% of the cocaine seized and 39% 
of the marijuana seized.

In Arkansas, highway police netted the state's largest cocaine 
seizure on Sept. 18, 2000, at an I-30 weigh station near Hope. Police 
found 2,500 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $125 million buried 
in boxes amid a load of melons. Since 1998, the state's highway 
police have seized 23,000 pounds of marijuana and 3,100 pounds of 
cocaine.

In his 9 1/2 years on the job, Fraley has seized 15,000 pounds of 
marijuana and more than 400 pounds of cocaine. The guns, money and 
illegal immigrants are too numerous to keep track of.

For the most part, say Fraley and Brown, it's a thankless job. 
Eight-hour days or nights on the roadside breathing exhaust, climbing 
in and out and under trucks, reviewing log books, checking tires and 
brakes, scrutinizing loads and drivers with the skeptical eye of a 
keen detective.

Much of the work is done without help from a K-9 unit. "They're 
reliable, but they're not foolproof," Brown says.

"Another potential customer," Upton says as he directs a big rig out 
of the rolling line of trucks and into a marked slot. "You never know 
what you're going to find."

Brown and Fraley approach the truck from opposite sides and ask the 
driver and passenger to step out, questioning each separately about 
the load they are carrying and where they are coming from.

The key, they say, is to listen for discrepancies and notice any odd behavior.

"The first thing I look for is personal [drug] use," says Fraley. "I 
look for dilated pupils, fingernails bitten to the quick. We look at 
the driver's license picture to see if they've lost a lot of weight 
or [have] a filthy appearance. Maybe they can't stand still. 
Sometimes you can see that look in their eyes. They've got that 'I'm 
caught' look."

Most times, they find a legal load and count another monotonous day 
on the busy highway.

On this day, Fraley, Brown and Upton swap stories from their 
collective 47 years on the job. They recall each big bust and crazy 
story like a fond childhood memory, crisp and detailed, each bringing 
relief or laughter.

Fraley remembers a call he got from the Kentucky State Police, who 
were doing surveillance on a drug ring in Kentucky. A wiretap picked 
up talk of Fraley and 2,500 pounds of marijuana he had seized from 
the gang on I-40 in Arkansas a year before.

Chilling, he says.

Interstate 40 is a major cross-country drug trafficking route. The 
big drug-runners are smart, Upton says. A lot of times they know who 
works what station and when. It's a numbers game--everyone gambling 
with their lives and their freedom for the possible payoff of big 
money.

"I've got two little girls who wait up for daddy to come home, and 
they're very aware of the dangers involved," Fraley says.

He could have had his pick of law enforcement jobs, but he chose the 
highway police for one reason.

"Big trucks, big dope," he says. "That's where all the action is."

The way Brown sees it, each illegal load seized is one less batch on 
the streets, and theoretically, hundreds of kids who are spared an 
addiction. But it's also personal.

"My son could be the next one," he says. "There are no guarantees. 
You can raise them the best you can. I feel like I've done my job if 
it keeps one person from turning to drugs, but I'll never know."

Brown and Fraley wear bulletproof vests and watch each other's back, 
as if slinking through a dark alley in pursuit of an armed suspect.

Another truck peels off to the side for a random inspection. Brown 
and Fraley approach the cab together.

Fraley is an intimidating presence, about 6-foot-2, stocky and wide, 
his black police cap pulled down within an inch of his serious eyes. 
Driver and passenger hop out and walk around to stand next to Brown 
as Fraley climbs in for a peek.

"You just never know what you're going into. You've got to be 
careful," Brown says as Fraley disappears behind a blue curtain. He's 
out of sight for about 10 seconds.

Brown shifts his eyes from the two men back to the cab where Fraley 
can be heard rummaging around. There's always a tension in the air 
when one partner is out of sight for too long.

Brown and Fraley have climbed into cabs to find pit bulls, snakes, 
people hiding in cabinets and under beds, naked truck drivers 
watching porno films, even suitcases full of money. One search by a 
colleague netted $3 million in cash, Brown remembers. "It was all 
vacuum-packed. It was amazing," he says. "It took us six hours at a 
bank . . . to count it all."

It turned out to be drug money, and before federal agents arrived on 
the scene, Brown says the suspect took one last shot at freedom.

"He said, 'I don't know what your financial situation is, but all of 
this is going to the feds. If you can find someplace to hide it, you 
can have whatever you want,' " Brown remembers. The money, he says, 
went to the Drug Enforcement Agency; the man--to prison.

Some drug runners do stupid things--stashing a load of a thousand 
pounds of marijuana in plain view, for instance. Brown remembers 
scoring a huge pot bust just because the driver smelled like fabric 
softener, sometimes used to mask the smell.

"That one thing led to an 800-pound seizure," he says.

Some smugglers will stash drugs in false ceilings, spare tires or 
bury it deep in loads of produce. Some use cattle as their carriers, 
slicing open the animal's inner thigh, stuffing it full of bags of 
cocaine and sewing it up.

"If you can think of it, they've done it," Upton says.

Upton says he sees himself, Fraley and Brown as foot soldiers in a 
battle that spans continents.

"If you've got a demand, somebody's going to supply it," he says. "We 
have to cut off that supply."
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe