U.S.Mexico border drug seizures flat

EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) Drugs seizures along most of the U.S.Mexico
border have been flat this year as traffickers find new ways to avoid
capture, officials said Tuesday.

U.S. Customs officials said seizures for the 1997 fiscal year, which ended
Sept. 30, were either the same or slightly down from the previous year.

``The only place on the southern border that had significant increases in
seizures was El Paso,'' said Carol Rackley, Customs port director in this
southwest Texas border city where seizures jumped almost 50 percent from
110,000 pounds to 157,000 pounds.

Antinarcotics officials said the slowdown in seizures does not mean
traffickers are smuggling fewer drugs into the United States.

``They're either getting through (at the ports of entry) or they're using
different methods,'' said Robert Mansaw, a spokesman with the Drug
Enforcement Administration.

He said the North American Free Trade Agreement has spurred heavier vehicle
traffic on all the bridges crossing the U.S.Mexico border and ``it's hard
to search every vehicle.''

He said seizures were up in El Paso because additional staffing from 493
inspectors in 1995 to 694 in 1997 means officials there can search more
vehicles.

``We've had an increase in staffing which has allowed us to have more bodies
to assign to enforcement,'' Mansaw said.