DRUG ACTIVITY SLOWS AT BORDER

Trafficking Has Nearly Halted With Tightened Security In Wake Of Terrorist
Attacks.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican traffickers have all but frozen daily shipments of
illegal drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border amid a massive buildup of U.S.
Customs Service inspectors and National Guard troops.

Daily drug seizures along the Mexican border have dropped to almost zero
since last week's terrorist attacks in New York and near Washington,
Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials said Thursday.

That's a direct result of U.S. authorities searching almost every passenger
and commercial vehicle crossing the border, U.S. Customs Service officials
said.

"(Traffickers) watch us very closely, so they know we are now on a very
tough security footing," said Customs Service spokesman Dean Boyd. "If I
were a smuggler, I would not want to be trying to send anything illegal
across the border right now."

The growing stockpiles of illegal drugs waiting to be shipped across the
U.S. border could soon start affecting the street price of cocaine, heroin
and marijuana, Mexican authorities said.

"How long they can hold shipments is a good question," Boyd said. "These
guys have bills to pay, too, so they must be getting anxious."

While it's too soon to quantify the slowdown, Mexican authorities along the
border and in Mexico City said they've noticed a reduction in drug-related
activity, primarily in the busy Tijuana-San Diego border region. That area
supplies a majority of the cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine
sold on the streets of the western United States, through the powerful
Arellano-Felix drug organization.

Almost two-thirds of the cocaine sold in the United States is smuggled
across the U.S.-Mexico border.

On a normal day - before the terrorist alert - U.S. officials capture up to
20 vehicle shipments of drugs in San Diego and El Paso, which together
record as many as 75,000 vehicle crossings each day. One or two loads a day
have been seized in the past week, Customs Service officials said.

Activity at other busy drug-trafficking spots in Mexico has slowed, Mexican
officials added. At the Tijuana International Airport, for example, there
have been only two seizures since Sept. 11 - for small amounts of heroin.
Before the terrorist strike, Mexican police said there was a significant
confiscation almost every other day.

"It seems as though the drug dealers don't want to risk seizures of their
products with all this extra police activity," said a Mexican federal
prosecutor in Tijuana.