DRUG CARTELS GROWING HERE, CASTOR SAYS

Increasingly sophisticated and aggressive Mexican drug cartels are
expanding in Southeastern Pennsylvania, flooding the market with
high-grade cocaine at low prices, Montgomery County District Attorney
Bruce L. Castor Jr. told state legislators yesterday.

Montgomery County's Narcotics Enforcement Team has seized 2,400 pounds
of marijuana and 313 pounds of cocaine from Mexican-based drug
organizations since 2004, said Castor, who showed legislators a cache
of semiautomatic weapons, bags of cocaine and marijuana, and several
talismans used by drug dealers for good luck when transporting drugs.

The cartels have "flooded the Norristown market with the
highest-quality and lowest-priced cocaine ever found available in the
area," Castor said.

He appeared before the Policy Committee of the House Republicans, an
arm of the GOP caucus that develops policy proposals.

Castor did not say what proportion of the area's drug trade was
controlled by the newcomers. The area drug trade has been dominated
by area residents, according to Lt. Kevin McKeon, chief of
investigations with the Norristown Police.

In addition, 17 illegal Mexican nationals have been arrested since
2004 in connection with the drug trade, among a Mexican population
that previously had been known only as victims of street crime.

A spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Philadelphia said
there has been no region-wide spike in the involvement of illegal
immigrants in the drug trade.

Castor said he wanted all those who buy prepaid cell phones to provide
a photo I.D., home address and Social Security number, so
investigators could better trace calls. State Rep. Jay Moyer (R.,
Montgomery) said he was working on such a bill, but expected
"push-back" from the cell phone industry.

A spokesman for the national cell phone trade association said the
industry was not convinced that such legislation would effectively
deter criminals. "I wouldn't say we are outright opposed to it, but
we do have questions about how it would work in practice," said Joseph
Farren, public affairs director for CTIA - The Wireless Association in
Washington, D.C.

Castor also wants the state legislature to authorize state and local
law enforcement officers to be cross-trained by federal authorities
and allowed to make immigration arrests.