DRUG SEIZURES IN THE SOUTHWEST ARE ON INCREASE

U.S. Customs Nets More Cocaine, Marijuana, Heroin In The Past Year

U.S. Customs Service agents in a three-state area of the Southwest that
includes Texas seized nearly 40 percent more cocaine, 31 percent more
marijuana and 22 percent more heroin in the fiscal year that just ended
than in the previous year.

Heroin seizures included $3 million worth of small, drug-filled balloons in
the body of a man taken into custody at Bush Intercontinental Airport in
August.

Customs spokeswoman Judy Turner credited new X-ray technology and a new
interdiction initiative with helping the agency intercept drugs, but added,
"Do we think we're catching it all? Certainly not.

"We know the demand is high ... We're certainly aware, we don't even make
the claim we're getting all the drugs coming into the United States. Drug
smugglers are smart, creative," Turner said.

In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, cocaine seizures in Texas, Oklahoma and
New Mexico jumped from 18,103 pounds in 1997 to 25,197 pounds in 1998,
according to Customs Service statistics. Heroin seizures rose from 190
pounds in 1997 to 231 pounds in 1998.

Agents confiscated 355,718 pounds of marijuana this year in Texas, Oklahoma
and New Mexico, compared with 271,042 pounds last year. Customs agents also
upped the amount of cash seized by 18 percent. The figures are only for
drugs seized by the Customs Service.

At ports of entry in the East Texas region that includes Houston and
Oklahoma, heroin seizures rose 16 percent, while cocaine and marijuana
seizures dropped 17 percent and 37 percent, respectively. More cocaine was
seized in the South Texas region; more marijuana was seized in the West
Texas region which includes New Mexico.

"Heroin is up, with a lot of it in Houston," Turner said. "What we find is
a lot of swallowers."

White heroin, the highest grade, usually comes through Bush Airport, packed
in condoms or the fingers of surgical gloves that smugglers have swallowed,
Turner said. If the container breaks, it can cause an instant, fatal
overdose.

A suspicious person may be asked to consent to an X-ray. If the X-ray
reveals drug packets, the person is taken to a medical facility where
customs agents wait for the person to expel the pellets.

In the past, they've had to authorize emergency surgery to remove a
life-threatening pellet remaining in a person's system, Turner said.

Turner said the amount of drugs couriers ingest seems to be increasing. In
August, 46-year-old Santo Argueta-Rochec, who had flown into Houston from
El Salvador, was arrested. A hospital X-ray confirmed the presence of 100
heroin-filled balloons weighing nearly 3 pounds in the man's digestive
system.

Turner said the increase in seizures was partly a result of Operation Brass
Ring, a stepped-up narcotics interdiction effort involving operations that
would be unpredictable by smugglers and more thorough inspection methods.

Inspectors have fiber optic scopes they can use to peer inside a gas tank,
Turner said.

A density measuring device can detect hidden compartments in tractor
trailers, such as a false ceiling or wall. Mobile X-ray machines are being
used on the border.

"We are constantly updating what we need to do," Turner said. "We want to
keep people and goods moving (across the border)."

Because the amounts vary so much from year to year, it is difficult to tell
whether the drug seizures are good news, or evidence that the war on drugs
is futile.

Jane Maxwell, director of research at the Texas Commission on Alcohol and
Drug Abuse, said it is impossible to get a clear picture of trends those
numbers alone.

"Seizure data is real difficult (to interpret) ... If you get lucky and
make one big bust, then the numbers really go up," she said.