SMUGGLERS TESTING LIMITS AT CHECKPOINTS

Authorities Are Seeing Increased Activity At Official Border Crossings

SAN DIEGO - The two Americans in the blue-gray Ford F-150 were slow to make
eye contact, and the veins in the driver's neck began to bulge slightly as
he explained what the pair had been doing in Tijuana.

Pointing his flashlight under the truck, U.S. customs inspector Edric
Onsgioco could see the bolts around the gas tanks had been loosened. Then
Sasha, a drug-sniffing Belgian shepherd, let out a howl and made a beeline
for the vehicle.

Pulling apart the truck's underbelly, inspectors found two bread box-sized
cavities in the gas tanks - but no drugs inside.

"This truck has been used for smuggling, probably heroin or coke. But this
was a dry run," Mr. Onsgioco said. "The smugglers are being careful; they
are testing us. But you know they'll be back with full tanks."

Authorities had to let the pair go but made them hire a tow-truck to haul
off the pickup. Mr. Onsgioco said it was not legal for street use because
holes had been cut in the top of the gas tanks for access to the hidden
cavities. Fuel could slosh out and ignite, he said.

America's efforts to make it tougher for undocumented immigrants, drug
traffickers and terrorists to cross even remote parts of the border have
brought smugglers back to formal border crossings, where more cars, trucks
and big rigs crammed with drugs are trying to slip across.

Sneaking drugs through the most-watched crossing points on a border
better-fortified since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and now war
in Iraq, is an indication that smugglers are trying to throw more drugs at
customs inspectors than they can detect, U.S. and Mexican officials say.
For every load caught, countless others slip through undetected.

"Anti-terrorism efforts have pushed most of the loads back to us, back to
the border crossings all over," said Oscar Preciado, customs port director
at San Diego's San Ysidro entry point, the world's busiest land border
crossing.

Heightened security in the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, saw drug seizure
quantities plummet along the border. But customs inspectors at the 40
official road crossings into Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas have
been busier lately.

In California, drug seizures were down 30 percent last fiscal year, to
315,442 pounds. But Mr. Preciado said his inspectors are encountering more
test runs like the one Mr. Onsgioco discovered, and the officers who do
make busts are finding larger loads.

"The smugglers aren't afraid to come at us," Mr. Preciado said.