CUSTOMS SEIZES RECORD AMOUNTS OF DRUGS IN LAST FISCAL YEAR

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - While drug seizures decreased post Sept. 11 along the
U.S.-Mexico border in California, they rose to record levels on the Texas
end, the U.S. Customs Service reported Monday.

During the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 326,553 pounds of heroin, cocaine,
methamphetamine and marijuana were seized along the border in West Texas
and New Mexico.

The previous record was 308,998 pounds in fiscal year 2000. In 2001,
308,852 pounds of drugs were seized.

In 2002, customs officers seized 323,083 pounds of marijuana, 3,363 pounds
of cocaine, 15 pounds of heroin, and 92 pounds of methamphetamine.

Seizures were up 18 percent along the agency's eastern sector of Texas,
which stretches along the border from Del Rio to Brownsville and accounted
for 31 percent of all narcotics seizures along the Mexican border.

Agents at the sector's 10 ports seized 386,264 pounds of narcotics in 1,610
cases in fiscal year 2002, up from 326,592 pounds in 1,608 seizures in
fiscal year 2001.

Of that, officers seized 369,376 pounds of marijuana, up 16 percent, and
16,333 pounds of cocaine, nearly triple the 6,723 pounds of cocaine seized
the year before.

There were 68 pounds of heroin seized and 487 pounds of methamphetamine,
more than triple the 133 pounds seized in FY 2001.

"Although seizure totals vary across the Southwest Border, we do see a
correlation between heightened security at our ports after 9-11 and the
rise in seizure volume in South Texas," said Gurdit Dhillon, U.S. Customs
director of field operations for South Texas.

In California, Customs officials saw the first decline in drug seizures in
four years.

Inspectors there seized 158 tons of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and
methamphetamines, as opposed to more than 244 tons the year before.

While the amount of drugs seized represents only a fraction of the illegal
narcotics entering the country from Mexico, it serves as an indicator of
the success of U.S. interdiction efforts, according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration.

Along the entire 1,962-mile U.S.-Mexico border, drug seizures fell to 625
tons in fiscal year 2002 from 682 tons last year.

"The whole phenomenon is like a balloon: You squeeze it in one area and it
balloons out in another," said Vince Bond, a Customs Service spokesman in
San Diego.