POT SEIZURES UP, OTHER DRUGS DOWN

Marijuana seizure amounts continued to increase this year in the West Texas
and Southern New Mexico, while the amounts of cocaine and heroin seized
decreased, the U.S. Customs Service and the Border Patrol reported.

Officials with the two agencies said the increase in the amount of
marijuana seized could be the result of increased manpower and
technological efficiency.

While customs officials said the drop in the amount of cocaine and heroin
seized was another dip in a typical "roller-coaster" pattern, Border Patrol
spokesman Doug Mosier said it could be a sign that smugglers are adapting
to avoid increased law-enforcement presence at certain border entry points.

"There's oftentimes no rhyme or reason why some years you'll have more than
one particular kind of contraband," Mosier said. "Smugglers are always
looking for new and different routes. We pretty much are watching between
international ports of entry, so it's always subject to shifting routes."

Drug smugglers face a few more obstacles at El Paso's official ports of
entry. U.S. Customs filled more than 40 staffing vacancies last fiscal year
and continued to receive new technology to help it discover illegal cargo
hidden inside the estimated 17.5 million vehicles that cross the border
annually.

In July 1999, customs received two portable VACIS X-ray systems that help
cut vehicle search time from two hours to 10 minutes, Roger Maier, customs
spokesman, said. But the help doesn't come cheap. A single-truck X-ray
system costs $3.5 million, and each VACIS system costs around $860,000.

"We're always looking to technology to help because the budget is always
limited and the traffic is always increasing," Maier said.

Whether the technology is helping customs catch a larger percentage of the
drugs smuggled over the border or whether it's just helping to keep up with
a rising tide of drugs is unknown.

"That's the million-dollar question," Maier said. "We don't know how much
is out there. We're catching a lot, and obviously we're not catching it
all, but we're having a significant impact."

Many times a drug seizure is more than just a drug seizure, Maier said.

"A lot of the people we catch are 'mules' hired for hundreds or a thousand
dollars, and (they are) expendable in the grand scheme of things for
smuggling outfits. But for us, a 100-pound drug load can lead to stash
houses in El Paso, and we'll seize a few thousand pounds. We're not just
racking up numbers and bodies."

Customs drug seizures sometimes can lead to the roundup of most of the
members of a drug-trafficking operation, said John C. Kelley Jr., special
agent in charge of U.S. Customs for El Paso's region.

"We try to find out who's involved in this thing," Kelley said. "We can see
who the transport people are locally, and once it gets to a city, we see
the distribution network. You get a full circle on the investigation, and
it frequently starts with a load that can be a small load."

"Sometimes we don't even let them know they've been discovered and let them
come through."

Kelley said a coordinated group of investigators -- involving local, state
and federal law-enforcement agencies -- follow the drug trail throughout
the United States.

He described a case that led to indictments two months ago, in which
customs agents followed smugglers backpacking narcotics out of Mexico into
New Mexico. They watched as the drugs were stored in stash houses in New
Mexico and transported by dump trucks into motor homes. Agents then
followed the motor homes as they traveled to Sacramento, Calif., to be
unloaded for distribution.

Kelley said the entire organization was arrested, and several thousand
pounds of drugs were seized.

Mosier said the concentration of operations along some stretches of the
border often forces smuggling routes to squeeze through smaller cities,
which then need more resources.

The Border Patrol opened a new $12 million station Friday in Deming. It
followed the opening of a $7 million station in Fabens in mid-September.

"Deming has really been saturated with illegal activity -- in the smuggling
of both narcotics and aliens. Some of these increased smuggling routes may
be the result of operations in Arizona," Mosier said.

"People who are determined to come through the United States are going to
attempt it. We can only try to streamline operations as best we can," he
said. "This area just remains a consistent artery for smuggling into the U.S."