I-80 CHECKPOINT PROVIDES A SHOW

An Operation By 'Very Respectful' Drug Agents Holds Up Traffic For A While

Truck driver Bill Johnson stayed a little longer than planned at a rest
stop east of Des Moines on Wednesday.

He was hauling produce from California - a "big salad bar" - across the
country, and safety rules required a 10-hour layover before he could push
on along Interstate Highway 80.

Johnson was about to enjoy a peanut butter-and-banana sandwich for
breakfast when he noticed some motorists across the parking lot whose
vehicle was being searched.

There were three orange signs a few hundred yards to the west. The first
told motorists of a drug checkpoint ahead. The second warned that a drug
dog was in wait. The third: Be prepared to stop.

A squad car idled nearby with lights flashing.

Johnson, already a few minutes behind schedule, stood on the curb and
watched drug agents go through other drivers' belongings.

The task force members represented more than 20 federal, state and local
law enforcement agencies. They said they had seized about 80 pounds of
marijuana by early Wednesday afternoon.

The operation stretched beyond the rest area, they said, but they declined
to be more specific.

In front of Johnson was a maroon Ford Thunderbird with California license
plates. Several plainclothes officers carefully pulled things out of the
trunk. A man in a vest and blue jeans said a drug dog had lunged at the
vehicle just a few minutes earlier.

The owners of the car seemed unconcerned.

"They wouldn't be taking all that stuff out of there if there weren't drugs
in there," said a bystander.

The couple in the Thunderbird, Ed Callahan and Cheryl Fox, watched as the
car's trunk was emptied on the concrete by members of the Mid-Iowa
Narcotics Enforcement Task Force and the Central Iowa Drug Task Force.
After a thorough search, everything was returned to the car, as Callahan
offered a few packing suggestions.

Then they were free to go.

"I think it's a good thing that they do this," said Fox. "But I'm sorry
that it's necessary."

She and Callahan were headed for Niagara Falls. They said they were in no
hurry. They compared it to moving through an airport. It's a sign of the times.

"It unfortunate that a few people ruin it for everyone else," Callahan
said, adding that the drug agents "were very nice, very respectful. They
told us what they were going to do before they did it."

Moments later, Callahan climbed in behind the wheel, Fox squeezed into the
passenger seat, and they disappeared into eastbound traffic.

Johnson rubbed his salt-and-pepper beard and changed the subject to the
high cost of fuel.

Did they check his truck with a drug dog?

"Beats me," he said. "If they did, I was sleeping at the time."