DRUG SEIZURES UP AT AREA BRIDGES

The U.S. Customs Service in West Texas and New Mexico seized more marijuana
and methamphetamines in fiscal year 2001 than in the previous fiscal year,
according to the agency's statistics.

U.S. Customs agents and inspectors also seized more currency, and their
cases resulted in more indictments than in fiscal year 2000.

"The success of the past year was also the result of a team effort by all
the federal inspection service agencies operating at (border crossings),"
said P.T. Wright, director of field operations for U.S. Customs in West
Texas and New Mexico. "Cooperation has never been better, and the results
of the past year prove it."

Customs officials reported fewer heroin and cocaine seizures in the region
over the previous fiscal year.

Friday, U.S. Customs inspectors seized 6,920 pounds of marijuana at the
Bridge of the Americas. The load, which was seized from a tractor- trailer,
was worth $6.9 million.

Officials said the driver, Adrian Calvillo, 28, of Juarez, was arrested in
connection with the seizure.

John Kelley Jr., the agency's special agent in charge in El Paso, said the
goal is "to identify, disrupt and dismantle smuggling organizations. ...
Customs special agents have been able to parlay small drug seizures into
larger conspiracy cases. It is something we do often and something we do well."

Spokesman Roger Maier said customs officers along the entire border were
just as busy as their counterparts in the El Paso region.

In fiscal year 2001, which ended Sept. 30, U.S. Customs officers from San
Ysidro, Calif., to Brownsville, Texas, seized 1.3 million pounds of illegal
drugs, compared with 1.1 million pounds seized in fiscal year 2000, Maier said.

At the Arizona-Mexico border, U.S. Customs officers seized considerably
more heroin, cocaine and currency than in West Texas and New Mexico. For
example, officers in Arizona seized 116 pounds of heroin, 4,794 pounds of
cocaine, and $6.1 million in currency. In West Texas and New Mexico,
officers seized 21 pounds of heroin, 1,991 pounds of cocaine and $1.1
million in currency.

Nationwide, the U.S. Customs Service seized 1.7 million pounds of illegal
drugs during the latest fiscal year, a 16 percent increase over fiscal year
2000 and double the amount seized four years ago.

In a prepared statement, U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Robert Bonner
said, "While anti-terrorism is now the Number 1 priority for all U.S.
Customs Service officers, the increased drug seizure numbers demonstrate
the skill ... of customs employees in interdicting all types of contraband."