The Searchers

In California's battle against drug smugglers, many of the largest and most
important seizures result from National Guard members using a timehonored
investigative technique: the oldfashioned physical search.

Working under the supervision of U.S. Customs Service agents, soldiers and
airmen stationed at ports of entry comb through cars, trucks, aircraft,
ships and even the U.S. mail in search of illegal drugs. It's a
timeconsuming and challenging task, one that requires skill, patience and
a healthy dose of intuition. But the payoff, when it comes, is worth the
hours of dogged searching: a truck trailer whose false sides are stuffed
with bricks of marijuana or an opiumfilled parcel mailed into the country.
These are the finds that make the work worthwhile.

Team Shield

Composed of soldiers and airmen drawn from throughout the California Guard,
Team Shield is tasked primarily with supporting U.S. Customs' drug
interdiction activities at four San Diegoarea land ports of entry
Calexico, Otay Mesa, San Ysidro and Tecate. The Guard members' presence
significantly increases the number of commercial and private vehicles the
Customs Service can examine at each port, thereby also increasing the
chances of stopping shipments of smuggled drugs from entering the country.

The team's executive officer, a lieutenant with three years' experience in
the program, said: "Working under the supervision of Customs inspectors, we
search vehicles, operate the large vehicle xray machine at the Otay Mesa
commercial port of entry, and do various other things to free up Customs
personnel. We have nothing to do with immigration control, however; we're
only involved in counterdrug activities."

And the scope of those activities is immense. The San Ysidro border
crossing, for example the largest and busiest land border port in the
world processes more than 40,000 northbound vehicles each day and over 1
million pedestrians per month. The nearby Otay Mesa commercial port is no
less busy: between 2,400 and 2,500 trucks move through its gates each day.
Though less jammed, on busy days the Tecate and Calexico ports of entry can
still keep Customs inspectors and Guard members hopping.

The goal of all the activity, of course, is to prevent the smuggling of
drugs into the United States. At the San Ysidro border crossing, that means
searching those private cars and buses that Customs inspectors feel might
be carrying contraband. Suspect vehicles are directed from the main transit
area into a covered lot containing individual stalls. Using their eyes,
instincts and a handheld densitymeasuring device known as a "buster," the
soldiers and airmen carefully examine each vehicle.

"When a vehicle pulls up," said a soldier acting as assistant team leader,
"we'll really take a deep look at it. That can include looking under the
vehicle, tapping the fuel tanks, checking the interior door panel seams,
and using the buster to check for hidden compartments. If we get a buster
reading that indicates a possible hidden compartment, we'll do a more
thorough search to check it out."

That search can include having the vehicle's occupants unload it, after
which their possessions and the car are checked in detail.

"It's a very important job we do here," the soldier said. "Under a Customs
inspector's supervision, we can check many more cars than the inspector
could on his own. And the more cars that are checked, the greater the
possibility of finding contraband."

The same holds true at the Otay Mesa port, through which both full and
empty commercial vehicles must pass before they can enter the United
States. Trucks chosen for indepth inspection are unloaded by civilian
workers hired perjob by the trucking companies, then the Guard members
move in for the search.

"There are all kinds of places for things to be hidden in a truck," said
one sergeant, "and you really have to be on your toes. You have to be
flexible and you have to be thorough. For example, we make sure the truck's
frame hasn't been tampered with, that there are no false walls on the
inside, and that there is actually gasoline in the tanks. We also look for
fresh welds or areas of fresh paint, which might indicate that a secret
compartment has been built."

If the soldiers suspect that the inside bed or walls of a truck's cargo
compartment might be concealing a hidden space, they can check the
structure with a buster or drill directly into the structure to check
hidden compartments for signs of contraband.

Yet another option is to run the vehicle through the port's huge,
stateoftheart Xray facility. The truck's front wheels are fixed to a
moving platform, and the entire vehicle is pulled through the car
washshaped structure. The Xray is sensitive enough to detect even the
smallest hidden compartment, and can even determine the number and shape of
objects concealed within.

The Guard members' presence at the land ports of entry is a tremendous
boost for the Customs Service, according to Joyce Henderson, the agency's
Otay Mesa port director.

"I've worked with the National Guard for the last eight years, and they've
been a tremendous asset to our inspectors," Henderson said.

"Many of us have been doing this for years, and we love it," the lieutenant
added. "And, more importantly, we know we're making a big difference in
terms of the number of drug seizures being made at the facilities where we
work."

"And this job is also extremely important on a personal level," said an Air
Guard intelligence analyst who supports the Customs agents at the
commercial port. "I'm from this area; this is my community and I really
feel that we are helping to keep drugs off the streets of this town, as
well as off streets in other towns all over the state. It's a great
feeling, and I'm proud to be a part of it."

Team Dragon

Though the California Guard's Team Dragon is also tasked with supporting
the Customs Service's drug interdiction efforts, its seven airmen and one
soldier are concerned not with bordercrossing vehicles, but with the
international mails.

Based at the huge U.S. Postal Service facility in Oakland, Team Dragon's
members examine parcels of all sizes coming into the United States from
Asia and the Pacific. And what a task it is: The area where the team
members work is surrounded by dozens of large mail carts, each containing
scores of packages. Though at one time only mail from certain
drugproducing countries was examined, now the Guard members look at
parcels from every nation in the Pacific Rim.

"Drug smugglers are often very smart people," said the senior Air Guard NCO
in charge of Team Dragon. "They find all sorts of ways to send drugs
through the mail, and we are here to help Customs discover and neutralize
each method the smugglers develop."

The Guard members first examine the outside of each package, then open it
to take a closer look at its contents. Inside can be anything from dried
Asian mushrooms to wood carvings to jars of pharmaceutical products, and
each may conceal drugs in some form. The soldier and airmen pay particular
attention to the containers themselves: the sides and bottoms of boxes
often contain drugs packed between the cardboard's corrugations, as well as
in false bottoms.

Several of Team Dragon's eight members have been doing this type of work
for years, and they are adept at spotting drugs camouflaged in hundreds of
ways.

"After you do this for a while you sort of develop a knack for knowing
where the drugs are," said Team Dragon's sole soldier. "There might be
something about the way a package looks or feels, or the way the contents
are packed. You learn what to look for, and we definitely find things."

Those things range from opium sticks to heroin to jars of illegal steroids.
And there are other contraband items as well, things like prohibited foods,
animal products or weapons.

"In those cases," the senior Air Guard NCO said, "we immediately notify the
applicable law enforcement agency the Food and Drug Administration or
the Fish and Wildlife Service, for example and they take over."

But it is drugs that the Team Dragon members are concerned with, and the
help they provide to the Customs Service is both significant and much
needed, said James Miller, the chief of Customs' mail inspection branch at
the Oakland facility.

"We would be able to do the job without the Guard members," Miller said,
"but we wouldn't be as capable and we wouldn't be able to look at all the
countries and all the classes of mail that we are able to with the Guard's
help.

"We've had the Guard with us for some time now, and I consider them part of
the Customs family," Miller added. "We feel that their goals are the same
as ours: the number one priority is to find drugs. It's a simple equation:
The more personnel I have, the more mail that we can examine, and the more
drugs we'll find. There are more narcotics seizures being made in the mails
than in any other area. Mail is just cargo with a stamp on it, and shipping
narcotics through the mail is as popular a way to smuggle now as it has
ever been."

"Though we don't see seizures of the huge amounts often found at the border
points of entry, we still are able to help stop drug shipments that could
ruin lives all over the country," the senior Air Guard NCO said. "The mail
that comes in here goes out to towns and cities all over the United States.
So any drugs we stop here won't make it to the heartland, and won't ruin
more lives. And that's what the whole drug war is about."