Pubdate: Thu, 27 Sep 2001
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2001 Associated Press
Author: Ben Fox

DRUG SMUGGLING DROPS AT BORDER

SAN DIEGO (AP) - America's war on terrorism appears to be helping the 
war on drugs, at least initially, as wary smugglers from Mexico avoid 
the risk of shipping their drugs across the border.

Under tight security with many more vehicle searches, the amount of 
drugs seized fell 80 percent along the 1,962-mile U.S.-Mexico border 
in the two weeks after the terrorist attacks, compared with the same 
period a year ago.

``The drug dealers, they're not stupid. They realize it would be 
risky to ship their stuff right now,'' said Kevin Bell, a spokesman 
for the U.S. Customs Service in Washington.

No one is suggesting drugs have become scarce in the United States. 
But authorities have long known that smugglers post spotters near 
border points to gauge security. Authorities expect the flow to surge 
again when the traffickers spot an opportunity, said Dean Boyd, a 
Customs official who analyzed seizure records along the border.

``The traffickers in Mexico don't want to sit on their product too 
long,'' Boyd said. ``They've got to get it to market and pay their 
people.''

Marijuana smugglers may not be able to wait much longer. The end of 
September marks their harvest season in Mexico and the dealers will 
be eager to move old supplies out of storage to make room for the 
fresh crop, said Jim Molesa, a Drug Enforcement Administration 
official in Phoenix.

``It's getting moldy,'' Molesa said of the old crop. ``They're 
desperately going to want to get rid of it.''

But the temporary drop after the attacks was significant, officials said.

Inspectors at California's border crossings, seized 4,179 pounds of 
marijuana, cocaine and other drugs Sept. 11-23. That was an 86 
percent decline from the same 13-day period last year.

The story was the same to a lesser degree at other crossings: a 73 
percent drop in the border sector that covers Arizona, New Mexico and 
West Texas and a 53 percent decline for South Texas.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service reported fewer illegal 
immigrants trying to gain entry as well. A typical weekend at the San 
Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego, the world's busiest border 
crossing, would result in 500 people turned back or detained. Last 
weekend, it was 168.

The Rev. Luis Kendzierski, a Catholic priest who runs a shelter in 
Tijuana, Mexico, where men can stay up to two weeks while waiting to 
enter the United States, said would-be immigrants are waiting longer 
before risking the crossing.

``What I'm hearing is that nobody is making it through the 
checkpoints,'' Kendzierski said.

Within hours of the Sept. 11 attacks, Customs and INS inspectors were 
stopping and searching every vehicle and pedestrian that entered the 
United States from Mexico. Normally, agents question everyone but 
only conduct searches when they are suspicious.

They also added a metal detector at the pedestrian crossing in San 
Diego and authorized more overtime to increase the number of roving 
inspectors to move through the lines of people and cars with dogs 
trained to sniff out drugs.

These measures are in addition to an array of high-tech tools 
employed throughout the border, including X-ray-like devices that 
scan long-haul truck loads, digital license-plate readers and scopes 
designed to find contraband inside gas tanks.

Drug smugglers can avoid the ports of entry altogether and try to get 
their goods into the United States by alternate routes - by boat or 
overland through the desert wilderness between the border crossings.

But these methods also present challenges. The Coast Guard has been 
searching all foreign vessels entering certain U.S. ports, including 
San Diego, and Customs surveillance planes have been patrolling the 
Southwest border.

If the heavy security remains in force, officials believe the 
smugglers will begin taking risks. ``Eventually they are going to try 
to get it across somehow,'' Boyd said.

Associated Press writer Arthur H. Rotstein in Tucson contributed to this story.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh