DRUGS KEEP FINDING WAY INTO US, REPORTS SAY

Despite extensive security on the U.S. side of the border and a
vicious drug war in Juarez, drug traffickers continue to push their
products into El Paso with little decline, reports show.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports show that the travel
patterns of drug traffickers are shifting. Those reports also show
that the type of drugs crossing the border are shifting, too.

The smuggling of methamphetamines has increased. Seizures of the
substance is up from 2.7 pounds to 28 pounds in the past two years,
according to a CBP report. And while the amount of cocaine entering
the El Paso area hasn't changed, drug seizure statistics show that
traffickers are moving less cocaine through the ports of entry and
more through outlying areas of the El Paso sector, the report said.

Those drugs are still being sold in bulk in El Paso.

Four men were arrested on Sept. 1 for allegedly trying to sell 50
pounds of marijuana to an undercover detective for the El Paso County
Sheriff's Office. Cesar Aragon, 20, Edgar Lopez, 39, Ramon Muniz, 36,
and Humberto Martinez, 40, were arrested by deputies on suspicion of
delivering marijuana more than 50 pounds but less than 2,000 pounds,
according to a sheriff's affidavit. They were booked into the El Paso
County Jail on bonds of $75,000.

Deputies have accused the men of negotiating the sale of 50 pounds of
marijuana at $300 a pound with a detective in an alley behind 9207
Empire Drive, the affidavit said.

Aragon allegedly negotiated the deal and waited in the alley with the
detective until Lopez, Martinez and Muniz arrived and delivered a
blue plastic container containing bundles of marijuana, the affidavit said.

Last week U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers made several
cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana seizures at El Paso area ports of entry.

CBP officers confiscated 1,691.78 pounds of marijuana, 24 pounds of
cocaine and 1.1 pounds of methamphetamines, Customs and Border
Protection officials said.

The seizures were made during 12 drug busts. During the busts,
officers located a false floor in one car. There were 75 bundles of
marijuana inside the false floor and one of them tested positive for
methamphetamine, officials said.

The driver, Crystal Mercer, 27, of San Antonio, was arrested on
suspicion of importing a controlled substance and possession with
intent to distribute a controlled substance, officials said.

Officers said they also found 60 packages of marijuana and 10
packages of cocaine concealed in the rear doors of a truck that tried
to cross the Bridge of the Americas.

The driver, Liliana Resendez, of El Paso, was arrested by U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents on suspicion of
importing a controlled substance and possession with intent to
distribute a controlled substance, officials said.

Resendez was booked into the El Paso County Jail where she is being
held without bond.

Special Agent Diana Apodaca, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement
Administration, said her organization, along with others in the
region, have been monitoring the changes that drug traffickers have
made to their routes.

"The traffickers will choose the path of least resistance," she said.
"This would include the more porous and remote areas. In other words
those would be areas where the river is lower, there's no fence and
no obvious signs of law enforcement presence."

Apodaca said all of the drug arrests made at the ports of entry or in
the El Paso sector have a cartel connection.

"Any drugs in this area would eventually, at some point, lead back to
one of the cartels in Mexico," she said.