MORE DRUGS SEIZED ON SOUTHWEST BORDER

But Rate Crossing Into U.S. Remains Steady

WASHINGTON -- Infrared cameras, vapor tracers and other high-tech
devices have enabled law enforcement officials to seize more illegal
drugs along the Southwest border this year than last, federal
officials say.

Nevertheless, the rate of drugs flowing across the border has remained
steady over the past three years, officials say, accounting for
between 50 percent and 60 percent of the drugs smuggled into the
United States each year.

U.S. Border Patrol agents already have made 7,310 seizures this year,
up 10 percent from last year, according to the Immigration and
Naturalization Service. Statistics showed that during this fiscal
year, which ends Sept. 30, agents seized 1.08 million pounds of
marijuana, up 24 percent from last year. Agents also seized 26,104
pounds of cocaine, up 15 percent from last year.

Barry McCaffrey, director of the National Control Policy Office,
partly credited nearly $26 million in new equipment, ranging from
audio devices to drug testing kits, that went to state and local
governments along the border over the last two years.

"When you look at the seizure rates, it's almost unbelievable,"
McCaffrey said.

But poor management and coordination between federal and local
officials has bogged down enforcement efforts, McCaffrey
acknowledged.

A congressional mandate to hire 1,000 border patrol agents each year
until 2001 to improve security along the border has fallen short,
critics say. The past decade, the number of border agents has doubled
to 8,000, but the Border Patrol would need more than 16,000 agents to
deter unauthorized crossings, according to a 1998 University of Texas
study.

So far this year 658 positions have gone unfilled, said Rep. Silvestre
Reyes, D-El Paso, who represents a border community. "We still have
areas along the border where you can drive a four-wheel vehicle
through unnoticed," he said.

But federal officials did cite some successes. Coordination between
the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs Service has produced numerous
seizures, said Samuel Banks, deputy commissioner of the Customs
Service. Border Patrol agents borrowed a mobile truck X-ray from
Customs Service to capture 772 pounds of marijuana from a commercial
vehicle at a checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas, on Sept. 17, he said.

Nevertheless, the House, Senate and the Clinton administration have
all crafted proposals to reorganize the INS, which oversees Border
Patrol operations. Much of the frustration has stemmed from the
agency's inability to slow drug smuggling.

"I've spent several years working to get INS funding for more border
patrol agents and better equipment. This reorganization proposal
reflects congressional frustration with the agency's failure to use
these additional resources to keep illegal drugs and illegal
immigrants out of our country despite these additional resources,"
said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, on Wednesday.

She was referring to a recent proposal introduced in the Senate to
streamline INS's drug enforcement operations.

Congress has increased the Border Patrol's budget from $362 million in
1993 to $727 million in 1997. While funding increases have enabled
agents to exert more pressure on smugglers, McCaffrey said, smugglers
have become more desperate and have devised new ways to elude law
enforcement officials.

"Clearly, the biggest threat to our defense of illegal narcotics comes
from the Southwest border. We have not yet achieved our goals there."