NORTH CAROLINA ATTRACTS DRUG TRAFFICKERS

RALEIGH - North Carolina is becoming a hub for illegal drug traffickers who
repackage marijuana and cocaine smuggled from Mexico and send it north,
federal authorities say.

"It's a dramatic change in the way North Carolina is viewed with regard to
drug enforcement," U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney said. "It's no longer just a
state where drugs are brought to be consumed here. They're repackaged and
redistributed up the Eastern Seaboard."

Fayetteville and Cumberland County lawmen say they have not seen an
increase in drug repackaging for shipment elsewhere.

Fayetteville, with its proximity to Interstate 95, is more of a
"pass-through than a hub," police Sgt. Anthony Kelly said.

Drug arrests are frequent at the city's bus terminal on Person Street, he said.

Drugs seized in transit vary, he said, and include marijuana, cocaine and
heroin.

Some busts involve large quantities.

In October, John Alexander Cano Rivillas of Medellin, Colombia, was
arrested at the bus station and charged with trafficking in 2,569 grams of
heroin. Court documents said the heroin was found in a suitcase.

Rivillas remains in the Cumberland County Jail under $1 million bail.

Sheriff's Maj. Sam Pennica says deputies made a number of drug seizures
last year on I-95 from vehicles traveling south as well as north.

One involved about 62 pounds of marijuana worth more than $500,000,
according to a Sheriff's report.

Pennica said deputies haven't noticed an increase in repackaged drugs.

"Our narcotics unit has not seen it in Cumberland County."

Pennica said repackaging may happen on larger shipments, "but we're making
the seizure before the repackaging occurs."

Midlevel dealers in North Carolina previously traveled or sent couriers to
New York, Florida, California, Texas and Arizona. Now the supplies come
here, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Evenson, who heads the drug section
of the federal prosecutor's office in Raleigh.

South Carolina and Georgia also are becoming what the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration calls "transshipment" states.

Easy interstate access makes North Carolina an ideal choice, said John
Boone, acting head of the DEA office in Raleigh. Agents have tracked
cocaine from staging areas in North Carolina to Virginia, Washington, D.C.,
Baltimore and farther north.

New Patterns

The new patterns of drug distribution are the result of several important
events during the past few years: the passage of NAFTA; the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; increased immigration and the collapse of
Colombian drug cartels.

Cocaine still comes from that country, but investigators say it's handled
by smaller operators and smuggled through Mexico rather than directly into
the United States.

The increase in trade allowed by NAFTA allows thousands of commercial
trucks to cross the border daily, some loaded with cocaine and
Mexican-grown marijuana.

"It's virtually impossible for the border patrol or customs to truly check
every one of these vehicles," Whitney said.

Law enforcement pressure in the traditional cocaine entry points - Miami,
Los Angeles and Houston - has forced dealers to cut back on their use as
repackaging points, Whitney and other federal officials say.

Smugglers turned to the highways as airport security increased after the
terrorist attacks, relying on long-established marijuana distributing
routes from Mexico into the United States.

The DEA calls organized Mexican drug traffickers "a significant threat" in
North Carolina. One of the agency's fact sheets attributes part of the
problem to the influx of Mexican immigrants in recent years.

In March, Davidson County deputies found 5 kilograms of cocaine hidden in
the spare battery of a car on Interstate 85. Davidson County is one of
several departments in North Carolina with teams that look specifically for
drugs on the interstate.

Maj. Dallas Hedrick, Davidson County's acting sheriff, said some doubted
the strategy at first.

"People wondered why we were worried about the interstate: 'Why aren't you
just worried about your own county?' " Hedrick said. "Well, the little dude
down here on the street corner selling a bag of marijuana, that bag didn't
just fall out of the sky on him. It came from a larger supplier, and that
came from a larger supplier."

The Davidson County team last year seized more than $1 million in suspected
drug money, about 16 kilograms of cocaine and 184 pounds of marijuana as
well as methamphetamine and other drugs just from I-85, he said.

In November, the team stopped a California driver on a traffic violation
and found 12 kilograms of cocaine headed to a transshipment point in this
state.

"Those drugs didn't originate here," Hedrick said. "We need to think about
that."