DRUG SEIZURE RECORDS SET AT NACO, ARIZ. PORT

NACO, Ariz. - More than $7 million in illegal drugs were seized at the Naco
Port of Entry during May, according to Port Director William Moloski.

Customs inspectors confiscated 4,637 pounds of marijuana valued at
$5,564,400 and 111 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $1.6 million.

During the previous six quarters there were 14 seizures of marijuana that
totaled 580 pounds.

"Our inspectors are doing a fantastic job, and I don't know if it's the
culmination of all their hard work or if it's because the drug dealers
chose this month to try to smuggle their drugs into the country through the
Naco port," Moloski said.

He also credited the record seizures to the increase in the number of U.S.
Border Patrol agents, and cooperation among various law enforcement
agencies working on the border. Over the past few years, Moloski said high
tech detection equipment installed at the port has made enforcement
operations quicker. At Naco, there is now a machine that inspectors call
the "buster" that can read the density of a door panel. Mirrors transmit
images to computer screens inside the Customs office. The inspectors use
fiber optic scopes to search in gas tanks and share an X-ray truck with the
Customs office at Douglas.

Also new at the port is a computer generated referral machine, known as
COMPEX. The system, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., randomly
selects vehicles based on a percentage of crossers. Sometimes COMPEX may
send one out of 10 vehicles into the secondary inspection area, or it may
select every 20th vehicle. On other days the system is not in operation and
the inspectors on duty make the decisions on which vehicles need to be
referred for additional inspection. "The drug dealers of today also have
very sophisticated equipment and they watch what we are doing too, so the
U.S. Customs Department tries to be as unpredictable as possible," the port
boss said.

The high tech equipment makes it easier to serve the people who cross the
border every day, such as the Mexican families who send their children to
school in Naco, Ariz.

Moloski said only about 1 or 2 percent of the people crossing the border
are violating the law. "Most of the people here may just be going to
Safeway or coming over to go shopping and we want to make their crossing as
quick and comfortable as possible."

Another part of the Custom inspectors' job is to track what is coming in
and out of the country from the factories or malquiadores that have sprung
up all along the international border.

At the Naco port, 35 to 80 trucks cross the border each day and in any
24-hour period 800 to 900 cars are processed. There are 16 Customs
employees at the port including 13 inspectors, two supervisors, a
technician and a port director.

Also housed at the Naco Port are the offices of Immigration and
Naturalization Services. Moloski said the INS deals primarily with people
and immigration issues, while Customs deals with interdiction of drugs and
other illegal commodities.

Sometimes people unknowingly break the law by bringing in too much liquor
or fruit that is prohibited because it can be carrying insects or diseases.
There are numerous free publications available at the port to advise the
traveler about customs regulations and food and plant quarantines.