DRUG CORRIDOR?

I-20 Now A Major Drug Portal

Homeland security? It's not always about protecting Mississippi citizens
from what is traditionally defined as terrorism. Sometimes, it's protecting
us from the scourges within our own borders - and illegal drugs is chief
among those dangers along Mississippi's Interstate 20 corridor.

How significant a drug portal has this federal highway crossing Mississippi
from Vicksburg to Kewanee become? Consider this week's activity:

* State Department of Transportation officers seized $412,000 worth of
marijuana (206 pounds) from a tractor-trailer load of watermelons bound for
Baltimore that was stopped on Interstate 20 near Meridian, officials said.

* Rankin County lawmen arrested two Texas men at an I-20 traffic stop on
Thursday who are accused of attempting to transport $8 million in drugs
inside crates of new furniture. Officers found what they believe was 332
pounds of cocaine and more than 80 pounds of crystal methamphetamine.

Economic developers dream of an I-20 corridor that will be the "new
Detroit" in terms of attracting auto makers to the Deep South. But unless
federal, state and local lawmen maintain their vigilance, the I-20 corridor
may well become known as the drug corridor for the state.