AMTRAK HELPS DEA HUNT DRUG COURIERS

Amtrak is providing federal drug police in Albuquerque with ticketing
information about passengers - and Amtrak police get 10 percent of any cash
seized from suspected drug couriers at the Downtown station.

As part of what officials describe as a one-of-a-kind arrangement, a
computer with access to Amtrak's ticketing information sits on a desk in
the Drug Enforcement Administration's local office.

It can provide drug agents with information such as passengers' last names,
where they're coming from, where they're headed, whether they paid for
their tickets with cash or credit and when they bought their tickets.

A local DEA agent talked about the arrangement during pretrial interview in
a court case last month.

"I met with Amtrak probably two or three times in the early '90s to discuss
use of the computer because I realized the computer was the key in catching
(drug couriers)," agent Kevin Small said. "And our agreement is anything we
seize off the train, they get 10 percent."

Information obtained from Amtrak helps drug agents narrow down who they
want to speak with - and therefore whose luggage could eventually be
checked by a drug-sniffing dog - when the agents board the trains that roll
into Albuquerque.

That team of law officers includes an Amtrak police detective.

Small said the arrangement is vital to catching drug couriers, adding that
tips are passed out "all over the country."

Steven Derr, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA's Albuquerque
office, said Tuesday he didn't know offhand how many arrests the team has
made at the Albuquerque train station or how much alleged drug money has
been seized. But he said both numbers are "substantial."

Constitutional Concerns

Critics say the practice could lead to targeting people based on their
ethnicity or financial status. And they question whether it violates the
U.S. Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

"This would disturb anybody - you buy a ticket, and the DEA is looking over
your shoulder," said Albuquerque defense attorney Randi McGinn. "It stinks.
What they're trying to do is get around the Fourth Amendment."

Peter Simonson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
New Mexico, called the arrangement "an insidious alliance" between Amtrak
and the DEA and said the ACLU is now pondering whether to take legal action.

Derr defended the practice and said it does not involve any racial profiling.

"I don't consider that to be an invasion of privacy. The whole idea of why
we do it this way is so we're not randomly stopping people," Derr said in a
recent interview. Derr added that "the bottom line is we do not engage in
racial profiling. Crime is universal. We arrest people of all races."

Amtrak was advised of this story and was faxed several questions late last
week. A spokeswoman responded with a short e-mail that says Amtrak does
cooperate with law agencies "and will, on request, participate in and
provide information for law enforcement investigations."

The e-mail added that "the Albuquerque computer belongs to an Amtrak
investigator who is a deputized member of the DEA task force," and that
investigator provides "limited" information to the DEA.

Consistent Factors

The arrangement between the train system and the DEA came to the Journal's
attention last month after Small outlined the practice while being
questioned by a defense attorney as part of a drug case stemming from an
Amtrak stop.

That attorney, Bill Tinker, has declined to comment because the drug case
is pending.

A copy of the audiotaped pretrial interview was obtained by the Journal.

During the March 5 interview at the Bernalillo County District Attorney's
Office, Small said the Albuquerque DEA office has had Amtrak's ticketing
computer system for several years.

Small said, "... What we looked for are the consistent factors (that) all
the seizures we've ever made had in common. And those factors are usually
one-way cash tickets bought within three days of the date of departure."

He added that on a given day, agents involved in the train drug-enforcement
work are "looking at three or four people out of 300. It's not very many."

The ACLU's Simonson said any innocent person could be buying a cash,
one-way train ticket.

"By the DEA engaging in this kind of action, they put under criminal
suspicion people who have no reason to be confronted with a search by the
DEA," he said.

Simonson also wondered if drug agents - consciously or subconsciously - are
letting information such as a person's surname or hometown slip into their
decision on whom to target.

"If a person has a Hispanic or Middle Eastern surname, does that also raise
a flag?" Simonson asked. He called the arrangement a "slippery slope" that
could lead to racial profiling.

McGinn said that since people who pay for tickets with cash may not have
the financial means to get a credit card, the DEA practice singles out the
poor. She said many poor people are minorities.

"That's racial targeting ... in sort of a roundabout way," McGinn said.
"Courts have traditionally been concerned about profile arrests - that a
citizen shouldn't be stopped because they match a profile" formed by a law
officer, McGinn added. "Just because you pay cash doesn't mean you should
get rousted off the train."

No Profiling

Small, on the audiotaped interview, said the DEA does not use racial
profiling and teaches its agents to toss out any conceptions they may have
about what a drug courier looks like.

"We teach people, if you think you know what a drug courier looks like, get
it out of your head because you don't have a clue what they look like,"
said Small, who does some work as a DEA instructor.

"I get (out) all the pictures of all the different people we've arrested
over the years. The youngest has been 14, the oldest has been 82."

Derr said that in addition to an Amtrak detective and DEA agents, law
officers from several local agencies are part of the 10-member team that
does the train work. He said it's common for the DEA to share drug money
forfeitures with agencies it works with, so Amtrak isn't the only agency to
benefit.

Derr said the DEA doesn't limit its train searches to those who buy one-way
cash tickets on short notice. He said credit-card purchases made just
before departure sometimes raise the suspicion of agents.

Small on the audiotape said the DEA does not do similar computer checks for
commercial airlines or Greyhound buses.

"We have no access to any computers at the airport. It's more or less 'cold
hits,' " Small said, adding that the train work is so busy it keeps the
drug team occupied.

Several train passengers at the Downtown train depot on Tuesday said
they're not against the arrangement between the DEA and Amtrak.

"Amtrak's got enough troubles. They don't need the reputation of being safe
harbor for drug dealers," said Al Vogel, a California schoolteacher and
frequent train traveler in the middle of a seven-day spring vacation. "I
don't see it as a big intrusion into any of my freedoms."

Jason "Wick" Kastrup, a young Oregon man who is taking a 30-day train tour
of the country, said "If I had drugs on me, I guess I'd be pretty pissed
off - but I don't."

Many of the drug cases stemming from Amtrak arrests are filed in federal court.

Stephen McCue, the federal public defender based in Albuquerque, said
Monday that his office will look at the Amtrak/DEA arrangement to see
whether it provides a basis for a legal challenge.

"Obviously, we're always looking for any way to attack the legality of the
stop or the seizure," McCue said. "That's our job."