TROOPER GETS NATIONAL AWARD

DPS Trooper Martin "Marty" Soward of Pleasanton was honored last week
during the national drug interdiction training conference in Phoenix,
Arizona.

Trooper Soward was awarded a plaque and certificate and credited for
the nation's largest heroin drug-bust (interdiction) on the highways.

It was not only a local record amount - 74 pounds (33.5 kg.) - it was
the national record for heroin interdiction by law enforcement
officers across the United States in 2001.

Officers making the largest interdiction stops (for each type of drug)
are honored annually by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) through
a program called Drug Interdiction Assistance Program (DIAP). The
conference was sponsored this year by the El Paso Intelligence Center
(EPIC), a division of the DEA, and hosted by the Arizona DPS.

Approximately 600 law enforcement officers, mostly high-way patrol
officers from each state, attended the conference. About 40 Texas DPS
troopers attended.

Trooper Soward's interdiction started when he was patrolling IH-37 on
Friday, April 12. He spotted a 1990 Nissan pickup driving on the
shoulder of the road.

He noticed the driver was having difficulty controlling the vehicle,
so he made a routine stop of the pickup. The occupants of the vehicle
included one male and one female from Mexico.

Investigating further, Trooper Soward discovered the 74-pounds of
heroin encased in metal containers welded to the rim inside the tires.
"The sound of the tires, when thumped, didn't sound right," Soward
told the Pleasanton Express this week. "Then, when I let a little air
out of the tire, I could smell the (heroin) chemical. It was really
strong."

Similar trafficking of drugs (usually marijuana), are common during
recent years. At the time of the interdiction last year, Sgt. Sid
Pullin estimated the street value of the heroin seized to be $3.3 million.

Trooper Soward's drug bust was featured earlier this year in the
state-wide DPS magazine.