RECORD SEIZURES ALTER DRUG ROUTES

Smugglers seek less-patrolled areas

The record seizure of marijuana this year by agents in the Border Patrol's
Laredo sector demonstrates the strengths of the nation's war on drugs and
its limitations, officials said Friday.

Agents in the Laredo sector have seized 212,734 pounds of marijuana so far
this year during fiscal 2000 - an 80 percent increase from the same period
last year, sector Chief John W. Montoya said. It makes the Laredo sector the
second busiest in the agency's nine sectors stretching from Brownsville to
San Diego, Calif.

Marijuana seizures

Marijuana (in pounds) seized in Border Patrol sectors along the Mexican
border for the first nine months of the fiscal years noted (example: 2000
seizure amounts are for Oct. 1, 1999, to June 30, 2000):

SECTOR 1998 1999 2000
McAllen 223,870 350,216 324,074
Laredo 95,217 117,857 212,734
Del Rio 25,979 27,440 36,075
Marfa 32,504 40,844 52,474
El Paso 108,212 130,155 135,541
Tucson 156,015 201,037 198,110
Yuma 21,937 12,749 8,909
El Centro 30,229 12,775 20,137
San Diego 16,281 21,030 20,036
SOURCE: U.S. Border Patrol

In addition, the Laredo sector saw a dramatic increase in heroin
seizuresa8093 20 pounds so far this fiscal year, compared with just under
6 pounds for all of 1999.

"Efforts by the Border Patrol's Operation Rio Grande in Brownsville and
similar aggressive enforcement in El Paso and Tucson proved very successful
in controlling the flow of drugs in those areas," Chief Montoya said.
"However, that has also driven the Mexican drug cartels to seek routes in
areas with insufficient manpower to meet the challenge."

Struggles within Mexican drug-smuggling organizations have resulted in
factions within the organizations seeking new turf to control, according to
intelligence gathered by federal drug agents. That has added to the
increased smuggling efforts along the Texas border. And an outbreak of
violence has been seen in neighboring Mexican cities.

The record-breaking smuggling activity means that increased drug violence is
just around the corner for Laredo and its sister city across the Rio Grande,
Nuevo Laredo, Chief Montoya said.

"My biggest concern is that we're going to see an outbreak of violence," he
said. "The cartels will do whatever they feel necessary to establish control
and remove any obstacle in order to move their drugs across unimpeded."

Historically, the Laredo sector - which covers 110,000 square milesin South
Texas - has ranked fourth in marijuana seizures along the border after the
McAllen, Tucson and El Paso sectors. Nine months into fiscal 2000,
Laredo-based agents have seized more marijuana than the 153,783 pounds
recorded in fiscal 1999.

As of July 27, Laredo's marijuana seizures ranked it second only to the
McAllen sector's 324,074 pounds seized during the same period.

The McAllen sector, just downriver from Laredo, was targeted a few years ago
for the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Operation Rio Grande, in
which large numbers of Border Patrol agents were stationed along the border
from Brownsville to McAllen to stem illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

Similar intensified operations in El Paso and Tucson were put in place when
drug smugglers sought out less well-policed crossing points.

"The drug cartels have better intelligence than we do, but it doesn't take a
great strategist to understand that it's a very big border and the cartels
are going to see the lines of least resistance. Right now, that's us."

Border Patrol officials are hopeful that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will
be successful with her proposal for increases in the budget that would bring
new agents and additional resources to the border.

"An additional 1,000 agents along the border would mean 600 for Texas. We
would hope to get the majority of those for Laredo," Chief Montoya said.
"The Border Patrol hasn't met its goal of 1,000 new agents for the last two
years. Of the 438 agents that were authorized for Texas last year, the
Laredo sector got 45."

Last week, Ms. Hutchison announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee
had approved $92.9 million for fiscal 2001 that would add 1,000 new Border
Patrol agents and provide for 25 new assistant U.S. attorneys for the border
courts severely backlogged with drug cases.

"What we have to do in this sector is stop the drugs and push the smugglers
out of here," Chief Montoya said. "Until we get more resources and more
people, we'll just keep shifting our tactics and our resources and work the
best we can with what we have."