DRUG SMUGGLERS' CREATIVITY GROWS

Produce Truckers Increasingly Used

At the Otay Mesa cargo port, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
inspector Eiichiro Ninmiya checked loads of goods last week with his
partner, Cora.

Hidden among truckloads of peppers, bananas, toilet paper and medical
supplies entering from Mexico, customs officers have been finding
another type of import.

With drug cartels becoming increasingly creative in evading border
authorities, it has become commonplace to find drugs embedded among
the truckloads of goods that move each day through the nation's ports
of entry. Two weeks ago, inspectors at the Otay Mesa cargo port found
more than 3,800 pounds of marijuana hidden in a shipment of peppers
and green beans. A few days later, they found a ton of pot stashed in
a load of bananas.

Although the phenomenon isn't new, recent drug seizures in fruit and
vegetable shipments indicate that traffickers may be targeting produce
companies, said Jose Garcia, deputy special agent in charge of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. Smuggling trends are
cyclic, he said, with traffickers using methods that show the best
chance for success.

When they target cross-border cargo, drug cartels aim for the weakest
link, Garcia said. Often it is truck drivers or others in the supply
chain. Although their tactics include threats of kidnapping or worse,
very often the traffickers present a bribe that is irresistible, he
said.

"They will get a driver who like everybody else is between a rock and
a hard place, and can't make ends meet or whatever," Garcia said.
"People have to realize that these folks are experts at exploiting
human weaknesses. They will plant this seed, and they will make it
work for them."

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexican trucks that
enter through San Diego are allowed to travel up to 25 miles north of
the city limit. They typically unload their goods at a warehouse near
the border for U.S. truckers to haul north. A pilot program
temporarily allowed a small number of Mexican trucks to make
deliveries farther north; the Obama administration has expressed
interest in renewing the program.

Within the border region, cargo trucks are used to move drugs in large
quantities. The largest single drug seizure made by U.S. Customs and
Border Protection last year was more than 10,000 pounds of marijuana,
hidden in a secret compartment built into a tractor-trailer loaded
with toilet paper. Drug shipments are even found hidden in trucks that
otherwise appear to be empty.

"Everybody is susceptible," said Rosa Hernandez, director of the Otay
Mesa cargo truck facility, through which more than 684,000 trucks
passed going north last year. "We've had different types of narcotics
in loads of fish, mattresses, plaster of Paris, concrete furniture,
perishables, etc."

In fiscal 2009, which ended Sept. 30, inspectors detected drugs hidden
in 43 trucks headed north through the Otay Mesa facility, the nation's
sixth-busiest for cargo. More than half of the trucks were otherwise
empty; the rest of the loads varied. In the previous year, 35 trucks
were found to contain drug shipments.

About 79 tons of drugs were seized at the facility in those two years.
Since Oct. 1, nine trucks have been found to be transporting drugs.

Smuggling via cargo truck is one of many ways in which drugs are moved
across the border, including by passenger car, on pedestrians who tape
it to their bodies, in illicit shipments brought in between ports of
entry, and sometimes by people carrying it in backpacks. More
recently, Baja California smugglers have moved drug shipments, as well
as people, up the coast by boat.

Importers say they have become increasingly concerned about falling
victim to traffickers.

"As you start putting pressure and clamping down on the more
traditional ways of smuggling, you start seeing the creativity of the
drug trade," said Allison Moore, a spokeswoman for the Fresh Produce
Association of the Americas, an importers trade group in Nogales, Ariz.

Customs officers in Nogales last week detected nearly 3,500 pounds of
pot stashed in a trailer carrying squash.

"The big challenge here is staying ahead of the curve," Moore
said.

As a protective measure, companies have begun sealing loads in Mexico
when they leave a factory or packing house, using a system of numbered
metal or plastic seals. If broken, the only way to replace them is
with a seal that has a different serial number, making any tampering
evident. The use of Global Positioning Systems is increasingly common,
Moore said, as is the use of temperature gauges that can tell when a
truck is opened by recording a change in the inside temperature. This
is especially common with trucks carrying produce, which are often
climate-controlled.

Six years ago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched a voluntary
program in which enrolled companies use such methods to keep control
over their supply chain and lower the risk of tampering. About 25
percent of the trucks that come through Otay Mesa have seals in place,
and the seals are always inspected, Hernandez said.

According to the agency, all truck drivers are interviewed by customs
officers as they prepare to head north, but only those trucks that
raise suspicions are subject to further inspection. These trucks are
screened by X-ray, unpacked and searched by officers and dogs,
according to the agency. Empty trucks are X-rayed as a routine, an
agency spokeswoman said.

Companies have come up with their own security measures. In addition
to sealing its trucks and using temperature gauges, one San
Diego-based importer of fruit and vegetables from Mexico takes the
extra step of not leaving any unused space when packing the trucks.

"We work really hard to minimize the risk, but it is a challenge,"
said Mark Munger, vice president of marketing for Andrew & Williamson
Fresh Produce. "The moment that a truck leaves our Mexico packing
facilities, we know how many boxes and pallets are in the truck. Once
we arrive in the U.S., the same amount has to come off. If there is a
discrepancy, that is a red flag for us."

One obvious disadvantage to some of the security measures being
employed is that they only detect a breach after it has occurred, said
Rene Romero, a customs broker in Otay Mesa. Still, importers have an
incentive to do their best, because a company's reputation can be
seriously damaged if one of its trucks is caught being used for smuggling.

"Most companies are trying to comply," Romero said. "They're trying to
lower their risk of being manipulated with contraband, because nobody
wants to be associated with that. The list of companies that have been
manipulated is incredible. Heck ... they're catching drugs all the
time. Everything they catch doesn't hit the press."