ILLEGAL DRUG FLOW BACK NEAR NORMAL

Although U.S. borders remain at the highest security level since the Sept.
11 attacks, illegal drugs are still seeping through in close-to-normal
quantities, federal officials say.

In the days immediately after the attacks, drug seizures dropped off
dramatically along the U.S.-Mexico border, said Roger Maier, a U.S. Customs
spokesman in El Paso. Intensive searches probably scared smugglers off. But
the drug-runners didn't hold back for long, and seizures are now back up to
pre-attack levels.

"The drug business is a money business and there is a demand for it," Maier
said.

Within an hour and a half of the attacks on Sept. 11, inspections at the
Mexican and Canadian borders switched from the normal Level 4 status to the
intensive Level 1 position. Level 1, which institutes thorough vehicle
searches, will remain in effect until further notice, Maier said.

In South Texas from Sept. 11 through Sept. 23, about 14 pounds of cocaine
was seized compared with 132 pounds for the same period in 2000. Agents
seized 1,200 pounds of marijuana during that time this year, compared with
2,400 pounds for the same period last year.

From Sept. 24 through Oct. 4, marijuana seizures doubled and cocaine
seizures increased thirteenfold.

Similar peaks and valleys occurred in Arizona and California. In the week
before the attacks, there were 45 major drug seizures at the five border
ports that make up the California region. The week of the attacks - Sept. 9
through 15 - there were 33 seizures. The number dropped to 30 seizures the
next week, but then began creeping back up.

From Sept. 30 through Oct. 6, 53 major drug seizures occurred - a figure
exceeding that just before the attacks.

It's not clear whether the initial drop-off affected drug arrests in North
Texas, said Sgt. Kevin Woodson with the Fort Worth Police Department's
narcotics division.

From Sept. 11 through Oct. 15, drug arrests were down 22 percent from the
same period previous year. But the drug business has normal ebbs and flows,
and there is no way of knowing whether increased border security led to a
decrease in arrests.

Drugs enter the United States in four ways - across the border (at
bridges), under the border (through tunnels), over the border (in aircraft)
or around the border (at unauthorized entry points), said Vince Bond, a
spokesman with U.S. Customs in California.

Building tunnels is typically very costly, the border patrol is always on
the lookout for illegal crossings and airplanes and airports are carefully
monitored. That leaves international bridges as the most likely crossing
points.

Under nonemergency conditions, cars are randomly searched. But the chance
remains that drugs could get through. But since the attack, crossing with
drugs is riskier.

"Our inspectors are raising the trunks, raising the hoods, poking the back
seats, checking documents and questioning people more carefully," Bond
said. "Smugglers do not like to have that level of exposure."

Initially, the increased inspections led to bridge crossing times of up to
3 1/2 hours. But agents have been working overtime to keep traffic flowing,
Maier said.

This is only the second time that Level 1 status has been activated. The
first occurred Dec. 14, 1999, after Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian, was arrested
and charged with bringing explosives into the United States through the
Canadian border at Port Angeles near Seattle. He was accused of intending
to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.

Level 1 status lasted more than a month after Ressam's arrest.

The levels are defined as:

Level 4 (code green) - normal operations without specific threat advisories;

Level 3 (code blue) - normal operations with heightened awareness;

Level 2 (code yellow) - increased level of operations;

Level 1 (code red) - sustained intensive anti-terrorism operations.

But even as federal agencies observe drug smugglers and their habits, they
are being watched in return.

"We operate in some what of a fish-bowl situation," Maier said. "Smugglers
do countersurveillance on us and they were probably holding back their drug
shipments assuming we would return to our normal inspection levels."