2,700 WORK TO SLOW DRUG FLOW AT EL PASO

War On Drugs - Border Officials Face Never-Ending Battle Against Illegal
Narcotics

Almost $140 million a year in local, state and federal money is spent
fighting the war on drugs in El Paso, a major corridor of international
drug trafficking, according to figures provided to the El Paso Times by
area drug-fighting agencies.

Police officers took 32,748 pounds of marijuana off the streets last
year, the Drug Enforcement Administration took 96,060 pounds more,
thousands of people went to jail, and thousands more were treated for
drug addiction.

The El Paso figures astonish outsiders.

"A small seizure out here, 200 to 300 pounds of marijuana, is major news
in other places," said spokesman Doug Mosier of the U.S. Border Patrol
in El Paso. "Here, we can get over 1,000 pounds at once."

Yet the El Paso Police Department, echoing informal estimates from other
agencies, said it stops -- at the most -- 30 percent of the drugs coming
through El Paso.

The figures make some people wonder whether the war on drugs is being
won.

The Drug Warriors

Lt. Gabriel Serna meets visitors in a Lower Valley interrogation room to
keep the location of the police narcotics unit headquarters a secret.
One ear following the unraveling of a drug arrest on his hand-held
scanner, he reflected on his endless and sometimes dangerous job.

He takes it one day at a time, he said.

"My focus is how much I can stop today, then more will get stopped in
Las Cruces, in Oklahoma City, in New York," he said. "We do our share
here; we're putting a dent into it."

The 26-year veteran of the police force -- a Virgin of Guadalupe medal
dangling from his neck -- is smiling.

By February, his unit had seized $409,376 in cash from drug dealers,
more than four times as much as it had by February 2000.

Teamwork

El Paso swarms with drug-fighting professionals. More than 2,750 people
enforce drug laws and support enforcers in the Sun City -- including
agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Border Patrol, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Customs Service.

El Paso is also home to unique initiatives such as the El Paso
Intelligence Center of the DEA, featured in the movie "Traffic," which
directs tips on drug-trafficking organizations to enforcement agencies
around the country.

It's a situation that probably deters drug-related violence in El Paso,
Serna said.

Of the 20 homicides in El Paso last year, none was related to drug
trafficking, police said.

It's a situation that also works for the agencies.

"The cooperation is outstanding," said Mike Stokes, spokesman for the
DEA, the only agency with a single mandate to dismantle international
drug trade and reduce domestic consumption. Bigger agencies work with
smaller ones for a common goal, because a small seizure might lead to a
big dealer.

"It's hard to say which cases are big and which are small. Smugglers
break down their shipments so as not to put all their eggs in the same
basket," he said.

In a very discreet building in East El Paso, agents from the Internal
Revenue Service, attorneys from the District Attorney's Office and
undercover sheriff's deputies, among others, work together under Lt.
Angel Colorado of the El Paso County Sheriff's Department.

With a budget of $1.5 million, his Metro Narcotics Task Force took $36.3
million worth of cocaine and marijuana off the streets last year. Yet he
knows much more is coming through.

Colorado believes in going after dealers' money and property.

"You can take 90 percent of their drug, and they still make a profit,"
said Colorado, a 20-year veteran. His task force seized $288,500 worth
of assets last year.

"We have to be patient," said Lt. Claudio Morales of the task force.
"That's what I learned here."

Results

Web sites, documentaries and recent movies have been questioning the
effectiveness of the war on drugs and highlight growing disillusionment
with the U.S. drug policy, even in the law enforcement community.

The federal "War on Drugs" was declared by President Nixon in 1973, the
year before he resigned, and it has been picked up by every president
since then. Its current budget is close to $20 billion.

Yolanda Sims said she doubted that the law can dissuade street dealers
from selling drugs. Sims, who works with drug addicts at Aliviane, an El
Paso program to prevent and treat substance abuse, said many drug users
become dealers to feed their habit. "And there's nothing on this Earth
they wouldn't do to get their fix," even risk going to jail, she said.

Officials at the FBI said they know victory is temporary. After an
18-month investigation that concluded in August 1999, FBI agents
dismantled an El Paso-based organization that used railway and trucks to
transport drugs for the Carillo Fuentes and the Arrellano Felix cartels
of Mexico. The case the agents built resulted in 115 indictments and the
seizure of $2 million in cash and other assets.

"This kind of operation takes them four to six months to rebuild. Do
they eventually do it? Yes. They find another way. Too much money is at
stake," said Special Agent Kevin Kolbye. Experts estimate the worldwide
production, smuggling and distribution of drugs to be a $300 billion to
$400 billion a year business.

But thinking in war terms is naive, said David Monnette, the demand
reduction coordinator for the DEA in El Paso.

"If the expectation is winning the war and the definition is that no one
uses drugs anymore, then there is no 'war on drugs,' " he said.

Lt. Serna agreed.

"It's a cat-and-mouse game," he said. "I'd like to believe we're the
cat."

Sidebar:

Drug War Money

Local, state and federal money spent in the El Paso area to fight drugs
(Figures include personnel and equipment budgets for 2000).

El Paso Police: $2.7 million.

El Paso County Sheriff: $2.7 million.

Drug Enforcement Administration: $2.5 million.*

U.S. Customs Service: $56 million.

U.S. Border Patrol: $8 million.

Joint Task Force 6: $15 million.

El Paso Intelligence Center (DEA.): Not released.

FBI: Not released.

District Attorney's Office: $833,000.

U.S. Attorney General: $17.4 million.*

Adult and juvenile probation departments: $2 million.*

County detention facilities: $13.8 million.

West Texas Council (prevention and treatment): $2.5 million.

Aliviane (treatment center): $7 million.

Thomason Hospital (treatment): $3.5 million.

Total: $133.9 million.

Drug Money Seized

Money seized in drug cases in El Paso that goes back to local, state and
federal government general funds:

El Paso Police: $671,000.

El Paso County Sheriff: $288,000.*

Drug Enforcement Administration: $2.5 million.

U.S. Customs Service: $11.8 million.

FBI: $1.1 million.

Total: $16.3 million.

* Yearly estimate.

** For West Texas and New Mexico.

*** Budget for the entire district which includes San Antonio).;

Sources: City, county, state and federal agencies.; * Metro Narcotics
Task Force.; Sources: City, county and federal agencies.