DRUG SEIZURES ALONG U.S.-MEXICO BORDER UP

MEXICO CITY - Cocaine and marijuana seizures inside the southwestern U.S.
border and along Mexico's Pacific coast have escalated dramatically in the
past two years, alarming U.S. law enforcement authorities who say Mexican
traffickers are sending greater quantities and larger loads of drugs into
the United States.

Seizures of marijuana by U.S. agencies along the southwestern U.S. border,
where 70 percent of all illicit drugs enter the country, are up as much as
33 percent over last year, according to U.S. drug interdiction agencies.
Between 1991 and 1998, seizures have jumped from 113 tons to 720 tons. At
the same time, cocaine loads off Mexico's Pacific coast appear to have
increased dramatically and this year the U.S. Coast Guard made the largest
cocaine hauls in its history in both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean.