Pubdate: Sun, 12 Dec 2004
Source: The Monitor (TX)
Copyright: 2004 The Monitor
Contact:  http://www.themonitor.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1250
Author: James Osborne
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

CHANGES IN MARIJUANA INDUSTRY CHALLENGING AUTHORITIES

MISSION - With stash houses only half filled, and fewer cars crossing
the border with their rear bumpers dragging asphalt, the marijuana
harvest season isn't what it used to be.

Early December marks the traditional end of the harvest in Mexico, a
time when farmers and cartels would package their crop for transport
north.

And U.S. law enforcement officers would be waiting on them.

Police used to be able to anticipate large quantities of the drug
moving through the Rio Grande Valley, says a 15-year veteran of
Mission Police Department's narcotics division, who works undercover
and requested his name not be used.

"You'd run into tons of it. The stash houses were just packed. It was
piled up to the ceiling. We'd try to get our informants to tell us
when the shipments were coming and where the new crossing points are,
so we could be ready," he said.

"You don't see that as much anymore."

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, the marijuana trade
underwent a significant change in the mid-to late 1990s. Improved
growing techniques and better irrigation meant Mexican farmers began
to harvest more frequently, not just during the traditional periods of
October through December and April through May.

"The marijuana is coming across year round. It's not a situation
where they're running out in August," said Will Handy, assistant
special agent in charge at the McAllen district office of the DEA.

According to Dan Doty, a senior patrol agent with the U.S. Border
Patrol, his agency used to see a large increase in seizures during the
December period. Now, the increase registers as nothing more than a
blip, he said.

But the marijuana industry as a whole, from farmers in the fields to
the dealers on city street corners, is changing, according to law
enforcement officers.

"Nowadays, they're getting more sophisticated," said the Mission
narcotics detective.

"The compartments in the trucks are better built. They have trained
drug-sniffing dogs to check the loads, figuring it they don't detect
it, ours won't .

"Back then you would notice cars sitting way low and you'd know it
was loaded. Now they install air shocks so (the car) looks like did
the day it came out of the factory."

Furthermore, he said, there are fewer two or three-ton shipments coming
across the border.

Smugglers would now rather move drugs in smaller loads and reduce
their losses. "Sometimes they send a decoy to the checkpoint, get the
agents tied up with that, and send in the larger loads behind it," he
said. And with the more frequent harvests dealers' product has
improved. Marijuana has a limited storage life and tends to dry out
when left sitting for a long period of time. A continual flow means
the dime bags purchased by customers on the streets of Chicago or New
York are only two or three weeks off the fields, according to the
Mission detective. But for all the changes in the drug industry, in
his mind the end result is the same. "It hasn't really changed that
in that it's still coming across, there's a big demand for it, and
we try to keep it away from the kids," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin