DRUG TRAFFIC VIA MEXICO NEAR ZERO

Mexican traffickers have all but frozen daily shipments of illegal drugs
across the U.S.-Mexican border amid a massive buildup of U.S. Customs
Service inspectors and National Guard troops.

Daily drug seizures along the Mexican border have dropped to almost zero
since last week's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Mexican and
U.S. law enforcement officials said Thursday.

That's a direct result of U.S. authorities searching almost every passenger
and commercial vehicle crossing the border, U.S. Customs Service officials
said.

"Traffickers watch us very closely, so they know we are now on a very tough
security footing," said Customs Service spokesman Dean Boyd. "If I were a
smuggler, I would not want to be trying to send anything illegal across the
border right now."

The growing stockpiles of illegal drugs waiting to be shipped across the
border into the United States could soon start affecting the street price of
cocaine, heroin and marijuana, Mexican authorities said.

"How long they can hold shipments is a good question," Boyd said. "These
guys have bills to pay too, so they must be getting anxious."

While it's too soon to quantify the slowdown, Mexican authorities along the
border and in Mexico City said they've noticed a reduction in drug-related
activity, primarily in the busy Tijuana-San Diego border region. That area
supplies a majority of the cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines
sold on the streets of the western United States, through the powerful
Arellano_Felix drug organization.

Almost two-thirds of the cocaine sold in the United States is smuggled
across the U.S.-Mexico border.

On a normal day, before the terrorist alert, U.S. officials capture up to 20
vehicle shipments of drugs in San Diego and El Paso, which together record
as many as 75,000 vehicle crossings each day. One or two loads a day have
been seized in the last week, Customs Service officials said

Activity at other busy drug trafficking spots in Mexico has slowed, Mexican
officials added. At the Tijuana International Airport, there have been only
two seizures since Sept. 11, for small amounts of heroin. Before the
terrorist strike, Mexican police said there was a significant confiscation
almost every other day.