BORDER BUILDUP SLOWS DRUG SHIPMENTS

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

Daily drug seizures along the Mexican border have dropped to almost zero
since last week's terrorist attacks in New York and Arlington, Va., 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."