DEADLY TACTIC BY SMUGGLERS: WRONG-LANE DRIVING

They are typically referred to as the wrong-way drivers. But Raul
Villarreal of the Border Patrol has another name for the drug and
illegal-immigrant smugglers who barrel into oncoming lanes of traffic to
evade capture or, under cover of night, even detection. They are, he says,
suicidal.

"They will employ any means," said Agent Villarreal, a spokesman in the
Border Patrol's San Diego office. "All they want is to get paid."

With the tactic in growing use at or near the San Diego border crossing,
local, state and federal officials have announced a crackdown on the
wrong-way drivers, promising stepped-up surveillance at the border and
better barriers to keep drivers in their proper lanes.

So far, even multiple fatalities have not stopped wrong-way smuggling.

On the night of June 24, a van with its lights off and packed with illegal
immigrants sped west in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 8 to avoid a
Border Patrol checkpoint that sat only in the westbound lanes. The van
sideswiped two cars, collided with a sport utility vehicle and then hit
another van. The driver of the S.U.V. was killed, as were the driver of the
wrong-way van and 4 of the 26 other people it carried. One of the 26,
Alfred Alvarez Coronado, was arrested and charged with smuggling illegal
immigrants.

The wrong-way tactic is being attributed primarily to a ring of drug and
immigrant smugglers that the authorities learned of only after that crash.
The Border Patrol reports at least 16 instances of wrong-way smuggling in
the last year, 5 in the last month.

Surveillance cameras have captured such smugglers plowing north through
southbound gates at the border, their vehicles occasionally pushing others
out of the way and running right over spike strips before they can be
intercepted. They then continue north in the southbound lanes of Interstate
5, which often carries heavy traffic.

Once the drivers cross the border, stopping them becomes tricky.

"We have a pursuit policy which impedes us from pursuing vehicles traveling
against traffic," Agent Villarreal said. "It's too risky. We place more
value on human life."

Border Patrol agents say the wrong-way smugglers, so far unique to the San
Diego area, are increasingly sophisticated. The smugglers are filling their
tires with a silicone gel, the agents say, so they can negotiate the
tire-shredding spike strips and are using reinforced bumpers that can be
used to ram oncoming cars. They tend to travel when traffic is light,
usually during the week from midnight to 3 a.m.

Though declining to detail many of the steps being taken to thwart the
wrong-way drivers, Border Patrol officials say they will be stationing
agents on the southbound side of the port of entry to intercept them and
using helicopters to help track vehicles as they approach the border.

The officials say that while it is hard to determine all the points from
which the smugglers are setting out for their border crossing, a large taxi
stand a few hundred yards south of the border is frequently used.

Mexican officials have pledged to take several steps, among them installing
a second set of spike strips and redesigning the taxi area to eliminate
access to the southbound lanes.