Pubdate: Sat, 22 Sep 2001
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2001 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://www.seattletimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Ricardo Sandoval, Dallas Morning News

HEIGHTENED BORDER ALERT KEEPS DRUG SHIPMENTS FROM MEXICO AT A CRAWL

MEXICO CITY - Mexican traffickers have all but frozen daily shipments of
illegal drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border amid a massive buildup of U.S.
Customs Service inspectors and National Guard troops.

Daily drug seizures along the Mexican border have dropped to almost zero
since last week's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, say Mexican
and U.S. law-enforcement officials.

That's a direct result of U.S. authorities searching almost every passenger
and commercial vehicle crossing the border, U.S. Customs Service officials
said. National Guard units are supporting the hundreds of extra Customs
agents patrolling the Mexican and Canadian borders and major airports

"(Traffickers) watch us very closely, so they know we are now on a very
tough security footing," said Customs Service spokesman Dean Boyd.

"If I were a smuggler, I would not want to be trying to send anything
illegal across the border right now."

The growing stockpiles of illegal drugs waiting to be shipped across the
border into the United States could soon start affecting the street price of
cocaine, heroin and marijuana, Mexican authorities said.

"How long they can hold shipments is a good question," Boyd said. "These
guys have bills to pay, too, so they must be getting anxious."

While it's too soon to quantify the slowdown, Mexican authorities along the
border and in Mexico City said they've noticed a reduction in drug-related
activity, primarily in the busy Tijuana-San Diego border region. That area
supplies a majority of the cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines
sold on the streets of the western United States.

Almost two-thirds of the cocaine sold in the United States is smuggled
across the U.S.-Mexico border.

On a normal day - before the terrorist alert - U.S. officials capture up to
20 vehicle shipments of drugs in San Diego and El Paso, which together
record as many as 75,000 vehicle crossings each day. One or two loads a day
have been seized in the last week, Customs Service officials said.

Activity at other busy drug-trafficking spots in Mexico has slowed, Mexican
officials added. At the Tijuana International Airport, for example, there
have been only two seizures since Sept. 11 - for small amounts of heroin.
Before the terrorist strike, Mexican police said there was a significant
confiscation almost every other day.

"It seems as though the drug dealers don't want to risk seizures of their
products with all this extra police activity," said a Mexican federal
prosecutor in Tijuana.

The last time the border was this tight was shortly before Jan. 1, 2000,
when U.S. officials went on a Level One alert after the arrest of a
suspected terrorist who attempted to cross from Canada to Washington state
with explosive materials. But that lockdown was short-lived, and officials
did not have time to register its effect on drug activity.

The current crawl at major border crossings - up to four-hour waits for
vehicle crossings into Texas at various times of the day - reminds officials
of the Customs Service crackdown in 1984, after the murder of U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena by Mexican drug
traffickers.
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MAP posted-by: Don Beck