RARE AFRICAN DRUG FOUND AT CHECKPOINT

TEMECULA -- Border Patrol agents used to seizing bales of marijuana were
momentarily stumped by the rolled-up banana leaves on the floor of the
Toyota Corolla.

But one veteran agent recognized what was inside the banana fronds -- khat,
a shrublike plant from central and southern Africa. The leaves of the plant
act as a narcotic stimulant when chewed.

"We don't see much of this stuff," said Vince Bond, U.S. Customs spokesman
in San Diego.

The Corolla's two occupants -- one a naturalized Canadian citizen living in
Toronto, the other a legal resident U.S. alien from Los Angeles -- were
stopped at the Border Patrol's checkpoint on northbound Interstate 15
Saturday afternoon when agents noticed the banana leaves, rolled up in
newspaper.

"Luckily, we had a supervisor here who had seen it before," said Sherry
Feltner, the Border Patrol agent in charge of the Temecula checkpoint. "If
it had been me, I would've been saying, `What the hell is this?' "

The two men, both 40 years old and born in Somalia, were questioned but
eventually released, minus their leafy cargo, which amounted to about
one-third of a pound. Border Patrol officials indicated that the amount of
khat seized was too small to justify prosecution.

But while the two men may have been transporting a minuscule amount of
khat, others are more ambitious, and much more organized. "We seize a lot
of it at (Los Angeles International Airport)," said customs spokesman Mike
Flemming in Los Angeles.

Customs officials at LAX said yesterday that agents often intercept
would-be khat smugglers with loads of up to 100 pounds of the narcotic leaf.

Because it is extremely perishable -- it usually loses its potency after
three days -- such amounts are much more than any individual could be
bringing in for personal use, said Kevin Rupp, assistant customs port
director at the airport.

"There are people actually recruiting (khat) couriers in England; they
advertise for them in newspapers," Rupp said. "They're given an airline
ticket, a little spending money and a couple of suitcases full of khat."
Khat leaves contain chemicals similar to amphetamines, and have been known
to produce psychoses. The street drug methcathinone is a synthetic version
of khat.

Chewing khat (sometimes spelled "qat") is practically a way of life in many
areas of East Africa and the Middle East. Its adherents claim it sharpens
thinking, heightens alertness and lifts spirits.

However, critics say khat suppresses appetite to dangerous levels, deprives
its users of sleep and can induce psychoses. They point to young boys in
Somalia who consume it throughout the day, often opting for khat over food.

The American public first heard of khat in 1992-94 during the U.S. military
relief mission in Somalia. Soldiers found it being chewed everywhere among
the populace, including by heavily armed gunmen loyal to local warlords
whose bloody rivalries had led the country to ruin.

The federal government considers khat a controlled substance, in the same
category as cocaine and heroin. Still, it turns up in ethnic markets,
restaurants and shops in New York, Boston, Detroit, Dallas and Washington,
D.C.

Nationwide, customs agents have seen nearly 35,000 pounds of khat so far
this fiscal year, which began last October and runs through the end of
September. In fiscal 1998, agents confiscated nearly 62,000 pounds. Between
fiscal 1997 and 1998, the number of khat seizures by customs nearly tripled
to 1,410.