DRUG SEIZURE DROP WORRIES U.S. CUSTOMS

Agency says 84% dip in 1997 may bring backlash from Congress.

Officials hope that a new interdiction strategy will improve performance.

SAN DIEGO--The amount of cocaine seized at the commercial ports of entry
along the U.S.-Mexico border plummeted 84% in 1997, forcing U.S. Customs
Service officials to develop a new drug-fighting strategy and leaving them
concerned about a backlash in Congress.

Bill Heffelsinger, assistant to acting customs Commissioner Samuel H.
Banks, said Tuesday that inspectors working at the high-risk commercial
ports on the Southwest border confiscated 2,383 pounds of cocaine last
year, compared to 15,114 pounds in 1996.

Nationwide, the quantity of cocaine seized by the agency dropped 15% last
year to 159,475 pounds, compared to 187,947 pounds in 1996, Heffelsinger
added. The total number of seizures by customs agents and inspectors of all
kinds of drugs was a record 26,240 nationwide last year, authorities said.

Acting Commissioner Banks, in an interview Tuesday, said the drop in
cocaine seizures is worrisome.

"You look at those numbers and you want to be your own worst critic," Banks
said. "You're going to be asked questions on [Capitol] Hill, and we have to
provide answers [for how to stop the flow of drugs]."

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) said Tuesday he was disappointed by customs'
failure to seize more cocaine at the commercial ports.

"Congress has directed almost every possible resource toward drug
interdiction efforts, including more agents, better technology and several
hundred million dollars in additional funding," said Packard. "These are
not the results we expected. If interdiction is down, the American people
deserve some answers."

Customs officials hope to find answers through Operation Brass Ring, a new
nationwide drug interdiction strategy launched by the agency this week.
Officials said the operation is part of a broader five-year program by the
Office of National Drug Control Policy to reduce by 50% the amount of
illegal drugs entering the country.

Memos obtained by The Times show that the new strategy comes at a time of
concern among customs union officials over possible political repercussions
resulting from the drop in the amount of cocaine caught at the commercial
ports. A Nov. 28, 1997, National Treasury Employees Union memo noted that
Congress had authorized $64 million in funding in 1997 for 657 new
enforcement positions along the Southwest border as part of Operation Hard
Line, the drug interdiction plan in effect at the time.

Hard Line was launched in 1995 after The Times reported that there had been
virtually no cocaine seizures at the biggest commercial ports on the
U.S.-Mexico border, where thousands of trucks cross daily. The union memo
predicted that "no doubt Congress will be highly upset with these [1997]
figures . . . border drug interdiction is becoming a major political issue
in Washington."

Another union memo on Dec. 22 said new "enforcement operations" were needed
and urged inspectors to be flexible and imaginative in their approach to
drug interdiction. "The objective being to increase our seizures so customs
and [the union] don't get their heads handed to them by the politicians in
Washington when the budget meetings start in March," the memo said.

Robert Tobias, president of the employees union, said he would not
apologize for the blunt talk in the memos. "This was me doing my job as
president to inform [members] what the stakes are," said Tobias. "There's
nothing wrong with telling people that if you don't get off your duff
you're in danger of losing your job. Brass Ring is a wake-up call to all of
us involved in fighting drugs."

On Tuesday, Banks said he was pleased that the president's proposed customs
operating budget for 1999, publicly announced Tuesday, was $1.8 billion, up
from $1.7 billion in 1998. That budget must still be approved by Congress.

Banks said he was willing to publicly admit some of the agency's
enforcement problems "so we can get the issue out there, even if it's
critical to us."

"I'm willing to take it on the chin if necessary to get the message out, so
we can focus on the drug problem," Banks said. Banks said Brass Ring will
"dramatically increase drug seizures" at the 24 ports of entry on the
U.S.-Mexico border.

A Nov. 28, 1997, report by the union said that "intelligence sources are
reporting that 5 to 7 tons of illegal drugs are being smuggled from Mexico
to the U.S. every day." In the interview Tuesday, Banks said he does not
dispute the union's figures.

Concern over the declining cocaine interdiction figures arose in September,
when Banks reported in a memo to customs employees that he had met with
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The Sept. 18, 1997, memo said that "we were asked some tough questions
about the effectiveness of our various operations, and we did not always
have convincing answers."

Heffelsinger said the biggest problem in customs' interdiction plan had
been its predictability. In 1997, 3.5 million trucks and rail cars crossed
into the United States from Mexico at the commercial ports along the border
from Texas to California and about 30% were inspected for narcotics,
customs officials said.

An equal number of trucks and rail cars crossed in 1996, and 25% were
inspected for drugs that year, they added. However, "we aren't as
unpredictable as we would like to be. The goal of Brass Ring is to get back
to being unpredictable," Heffelsinger said.

Customs officials received a warning in June 1997 that portions of the
agency's enforcement strategy at the ports had been compromised. A June 20,
1997, memo from Assistant Commissioner Robert S. Trotter to all Southwest
border port directors warned that "traffickers have developed detailed
knowledge and profiles of our port operations."

Trotter said that spotters, commonly used by drug rings to warn of
enforcement activity at the ports, "have determined what cargo, conveyance
or passengers we inspect, how many of those conveyances are checked on an
average day, what lanes we work harder and what lanes are more accessible
for smuggling."

Banks acknowledged that customs has still not learned how to defeat the
spotters, who work in the open on the U.S. side at the gates to the
commercial ports.

Copyright Los Angeles Times