INNOCENCE LOST

Authorities Struggle To Make Teen Smugglers' Punishment Fit The Crime

EL PASO - The sudden rise in teenage drug smugglers along the Southwest
border has stirred a debate over how to punish those who are caught. As it
is, most get probation, not exactly a tough statement against illegal
drugs, some critics say.

"If it were up to me, I'd revamp the system to make it less attractive for
juveniles to get involved with drug smugglers," said Rogelio Soto, chief of
the Val Verde County Juvenile Probation Department in Del Rio.

Indeed, something seems awry when kids who smuggle 50-pound loads of
marijuana are let go. Yet jail and adult sentences often do juveniles more
harm than good, youth advocates and others say.

"You can't just lock up a kid. And you can't treat all of them exactly the
same. It's all case by case," said Dave Contreras, a prosecutor in the El
Paso County attorney's office.

The challenge is separating the wide-eyed, innocent, remorseful kids from
the hard-core offenders who have no desire to change their ways.

Jorge, 16, falls into the latter category. He grew up poor in the rugged
Mexican state of Michoacan but figured out one thing quick: marijuana means
money. So he became a smuggler.

Police first caught him moving a load of pot when he was 11 years old and
locked him up for eight days, he said. Jorge kept at it, grew his own field
of marijuana and made enough money to buy a house and a pickup truck all
without doing serious jail time.

Now serving 12 months at a Ciudad Juarez juvenile jail after police nabbed
him with 63 pounds of marijuana, he's had time to think. And his mind is
made up: Once he's 18 and faces the risk of adult jail time in Mexico, he
said, he'll hire his own crew of boys to do his dirty work.

"If you're not afraid and you have heart, everything comes out OK," he said.

At the other end of the spectrum are kids like Rafael, also 16. Just a few
weeks ago, he said, a childhood friend took him to meet some strangers who
asked him to drive some drugs across the border for $300. He said he needed
money to fix his car's broken window, so he agreed.

Customs agents in El Paso stopped him and found 161 pounds of marijuana. He
was sent to a juvenile jail and said he feels terrible for letting down his
family, Jehovah's Witnesses.

"I did them a bad turn," the teenager said, crying. "I feel so bad. I want
to be forgiven for causing so much anguish."

Like Rafael, many young smugglers are first-time offenders. Mr. Contreras
recalled the case of a 15-year-old El Paso girl, a member of the National
Honor Society. One day last year, she told her mother she was going to
Juarez to buy Christmas decorations. Instead, she picked up "about 100
pounds of grass" and tried unsuccessfully to sneak it across the border.

For her and others who "do something stupid and it's a first offense," jail
isn't the answer, Mr. Contreras said. The girl finished probation early,
completed community service and quickly got her life back together.

Adult trafficking bosses, not juveniles, are the ones who ought to be
punished, he said. "I wouldn't doubt it if they'd send their own mother
across the border with drugs. Greed fuels the drug business."

Smuggling organizations target El Paso because it is one of the busiest of
the Southwest border's 39 crossing points. About 70 percent of the teen
traffickers arrested there are boys.

Few are "criminal types," said Karen Perez of the El Paso County Juvenile
Probation Department. "We see a lot of kids with no criminal history and no
real problems at home or at school."

Apprehended juveniles who are U.S. citizens have outnumbered Mexicans 154
to 81 in El Paso since 1997. Mexicans arrested in Texas are most likely to
be returned to their country to serve probation, saving the state an
estimated $100,000 a year, officials say.

Probation officer Rosa Mara Aguirre said 28 of the 29 juveniles she
currently supervises in Juarez were caught smuggling drugs.

"Many are students, and for them $100 is a lot of money. Just imagine how
they react when someone offers them $700," she said.

Teens found guilty of a felony drug offense in Texas must serve a minimum
of one year in jail. Hard-core offenders 14 and older can be tried as
adults and get up to 40 years in prison, though such cases are unusual.

"Generally speaking, there is a lack of punishment for younger couriers,"
said U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "It's a bit of a
dilemma."

Of the 235 teen traffickers arrested from January 1997 to April 1999 in El
Paso County, 98 received probation and 63 others had their cases dropped or
dismissed.

Only 17 were sent to juvenile detention. The rest of the cases were either
pending, combined with other cases or otherwise disposed of, county
statistics show.

Mr. Contreras defended handing out probation, saying it's far from "a slap
on the wrist."

"Adult probation is a cakewalk, anyone will tell you. Juvenile probation is
a lot more restrictive. You're not walking around scot-free. There's
counseling, community service, court costs. A 15-year-old doing all that,
it really sends a message home."

Minors arrested in Mexico often serve a year in juvenile detention. Most
return to their homes and rarely get into trouble again, said Cristina
Ramos, a supervisor at a juarez teen jail.

Adriana, 16, from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, said she smuggled out of
sheer desperation. Her father had died at 61, after which her mother and
eight brothers and sisters no longer had a source of income.

A friend offered her a quick 6,000 pesos about $650. All she had to do was
take a 46-pound bag of marijuana from Sinaloa, on the Pacific coast, to
Juarez. Mexican police caught her at a highway checkpoint.

"All I wanted to do was to help my mother," said Adriana, who is serving a
10-month sentence in a juvenile jail. "But landing in jail turned out to
cost more than I was going to make. I just didn't think things through."

Others begin planning their next smuggling operation even before leaving
jail.

"These kids make so much money. It's hard to convince them to work for
less," Ms. Ramos said. "They can make $1,000 in a single day. I don't even
make $1,000 in a month. They say, 'You're crazy for working for such low
wages.'"

Meantime, the river of drugs continues flowing northward.

American anti-drug agents say 55 percent of the cocaine, half the marijuana
and 20 percent of the heroin consumed in the United States is thought to
come across the Southwest border.

No one knows exactly how much is brought across by young smugglers, but
agents doubt that it could be more than 15 percent of the several hundred
tons of drugs that make it in every year. Many large-scale traffickers hide
their illicit cargo in tractor-trailers, ships and freight containers,
agents say.

Agents say the number of juvenile trafficking arrests nationwide rose from
325 in 1997 to 449 last year, but it remains a rare offense.

Only 3,045 or 2.9 percent of those in juvenile jails in 1997 nationwide
were traffickers or drug dealers, the Department of Justice said. Murderers
were only slightly less common, at 1.8 percent. Most incarcerated juveniles
were in for theft, robbery, assault and parole or probation violations.

In Texas, fewer than 2 percent of youths sent to juvenile detention centers
are classified as "controlled-substance dealers," which includes both
traffickers and street dealers, statistics show.

Still, U.S. agents expect the number of arrests to continue to rise.

During one night along the southern frontier in El Paso, veteran Border
Patrol Supervisor John Hubert was short 11 agents and had just 24 men and
women to watch nine miles of border.

"Our operation, well, you could equate it to a prevent defense" a strategy
football teams resort to when the other team seems to be on the verge of
scoring. "We're still in the game. But there's no doubt in my mind someone
is coming across with dope right now. We get the ones we see."

Some traffickers sneak across the border, then make their way north through
the 125-year-old labyrinth of storm drains and sewers that crisscrosses El
Paso.

Others play the odds, driving across and hoping customs agents won't catch
them.

"There's no shortage of folks in Juarez who will drive a van from El Paso
to Chicago for $500 or $1,000," Border Patrol Supervisor David Ham said.
"The money's there, and there's a reluctance to prosecute. I don't foresee
an end to it."

Many teens see little wrong with smuggling drugs, especially marijuana,
said Ms. Perez of the El Paso County Juvenile Probation Department.

"So many kids see smoking marijuana as a fairly normal thing," she said.
"They don't think much more about bringing marijuana across the border than
they would a load of cigarettes."

Expecting law enforcement to come up with a miracle solution isn't
realistic, said J.J. Lopez, chief Customs inspector in El Paso. Teachers,
parents, police all of society must get involved, he said.

"We'd better be willing to pay the price, whether that's waiting a little
longer in line when crossing the border, getting involved with your
children, whatever it takes," he said. "We're dealing not only with the
well-being of our children, but a whole nation. That's what's at stake."