Pubdate: Sun, 15 Sep 2013
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Copyright: 2013 PG Publishing Co., Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/pm4R4dI4
Website: http://www.post-gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/341
Author: Andrew McGill and David Patch, Block News Alliance

PRIVATE PLANES ON RADAR FOR U.S. SECURITY SEARCHES

It seemed like a normal enough flight to David Brodsky - a 1,800-mile 
hop from Concord, Calif., to Boonville, Mo., in his uncle's plane.

But when the Missouri man and his uncle landed in March, they were 
met on the tarmac by four unmarked police cars. Asking to search his 
plane, police officers told Mr. Brodsky they got a tip he may be 
smuggling large amounts of marijuana.

Their source? The Department of Homeland Security's Customs and 
Border Protection division, which appears to have launched a program 
to track and search private planes flying domestically in the hopes 
of making drug busts.

"They think people are flying pot out of California," Mr. Brodsky 
said. "They're casting a wide net and hoping to catch something - and 
trampling people's civil rights in the process."

Over the past year, advocates for amateur aviators say they've seen a 
troubling spike in Customs and Border Protection searches, which 
appear to target mom-and-pop pilots traveling in border states. While 
Pittsburgh flights near Canada and elsewhere haven't gotten the same 
scrutiny as those in the Southwest, local pilots say they've heard 
word of the trouble and are preparing themselves.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the AAA of the airplane 
set, says its members have reported more than 40 searches in recent 
months, both by CBP agents and local police.

Many follow the same pattern: Having tracked the flight 
electronically, federal agents meet the pilots at the runway, demand 
their papers and say they need to take a look around the planes, 
sometimes with drug-sniffing dogs.

But others read like a scene from an action flick. One pilot 
reportedly told the association he was tailed by a military 
helicopter and surrounded by armed agents upon landing. Another said 
he was awakened and taken out to the airfield in the middle of the 
night after officers traced his license plate from an earlier flight.

"These are people just out flying their planes, and suddenly they're 
stopped and there's a Black Hawk on the ground," AOPA spokesman Steve 
Hedges said. "Some of these stops have been going on a few years. But 
this has been slowly gaining momentum, and it seems like in the last 
year or so it's picked up."

Search for answers

The advocacy group has asked for answers, filing more than 40 Freedom 
of Information Act requests with the Department of Homeland Security, 
the border protection organization's parent agency.

So far, they've gotten little response. Border officials won't 
confirm nor deny a strategy of targeting private pilots, though 
pulled-over aviators say agents on the ground acknowledge there's an 
increased push.

When contacted, Jenny L. Burke, branch chief of Customs' media 
relations division, issued a statement:

"CBP's primary mission is to protect the American public while 
facilitating lawful travel and trade. This includes ensuring that all 
persons and cargo enter the U.S. legally and safely through official 
ports of entry, preventing the illegal entry into the U.S. of persons 
and contraband at and between [points of entry], ensuring the safe 
and efficient flow of commerce into the United States, and enforcing 
trade and tariff laws and regulations."

But there's little question searches are happening. According to a 
letter sent to AOPA by CBP commissioner Thomas S. Winkowski, Customs 
and Border Protection is relying on a legal provision that allows 
federal officers to make "ramp checks" of landing aircraft, verifying 
their pilot's paperwork is in order and the aircraft is in good shape.

"In the course of conducting a pilot certificate inspection, facts 
may arise meriting further investigation or search to the extent 
authorized under the Constitution and consistent with federal law," 
Mr. Winkowski wrote.

His argument doesn't fly, AOPA argues. For years, ramp checks have 
been the responsibility of Federal Aviation Administration officials, 
who are qualified to inspect aircraft. As far as the association can 
tell, the FAA hasn't asked CBP for any help.

Justification needed

Federal law also requires agents on the ground to have a justifiable 
reason for searching an aircraft, including an "immediate suspicion" 
that the pilot is dangerous or is harboring a passenger that means to do harm.

Overall, AOPA says the authority to conduct a ramp check doesn't give 
a federal agent license to search an airplane further if it's 
unrelated to its safe operation.

"I have nothing against fighting the War on Drugs," said Thomas Zecha 
Jr., AOPA's manager of aviation security. "But it's still the United 
States. You're going to have to do it in a more precise way than 
casting a wide net."

AOPA has asked lawmakers to look into the searches; on Monday, U.S. 
Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., took up the cause.

Writing a letter to the U.S. inspector general, Mr. Graves demanded 
answers on the searches by Nov. 1.

"If it is determined that CBP is operating outside of its authority," 
he wrote, "then I request that your office ensure that proper 
oversight is applied and the agency is prevented from continuing this 
practice."

Searches by federal border agents is more a concern in the Southern 
states, where CBP has apparently focused its enforcement efforts. But 
even in Pittsburgh, which hasn't seen the same attention from federal 
agents, local pilots are aware of the problem.

Vincent Smith once flew to Canada regularly as a salesman, and he 
still does now and then. The Butler County man owns two small planes 
- - a Cessna 182 and a 172 - and he's become enough of a regular face 
at the Erie International Airport that customs officials usually wave 
him through with minimal trouble.

That said, he's taken note of the AOPA's dispatches, looking over 
their quick-reference guide to handling a CBP search.

"It is alarming," Mr. Smith said. "It just seems to be invading into 
the private lives of citizens. Under the Constitution, we have a 
fundamental right to freedom and going about our business."

The Block News Alliance consists of the Pittsburgh PostGazette and 
The Blade of Toledo, Ohio. Andrew McGill is a reporter for the 
Post-Gazette. David Patch is a reporter for The Blade.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom