GAS-TANK SMUGGLING CONCERN RAISED

SAN DIEGO (AP)-- Law enforcement officials fear a federal court ruling
banning random searches of automobile gas tanks at the Mexican border could
make it easier to slip drugs, terrorist weapons and illegal immigrants into
the United States.

The chief federal prosecutor in San Diego is challenging the ruling, issued
in January by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a 2-1 decision, the court said that inspectors at Western border
crossings must have reasonable suspicion that a motorist is smuggling
something in his gas tank before they can take the vehicle apart.

The ruling has alarmed the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the
Customs Service.

"Terrorists could employ a gas tank to smuggle biological weapons or
explosives across the border, secure in the knowledge that customs would
not be able to inspect that area of their car unless inspectors could
develop reasonable suspicion," U.S. Attorney Patrick O'Toole said in court
papers.

Concerns about border security were heightened by the announcement last
week of the arrest of an American suspected of plotting to explode a
radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States.

Gas-tank smuggling is already the most common form of vehicle smuggling at
Southern California border crossings.

Illegal immigrants have been known to cram themselves into hollowed-out gas
tanks to sneak across the border. Inspectors find someone in a gas tank
once every 10 days at San Diego's two border crossings, Diane Hinckley of
the INS said in court papers. Most are weak, nauseated, dehydrated and
sometimes unable to stand, Hinckley said.

Since 1997, drugs have been found in 4,600 gas tanks at California border
crossings, according to the Customs Service. The latest figures from
October to March show that when drugs were found in a vehicle, 30 percent
of the time they were in the tank.

The appellate court ruling prompted a federal judge in San Diego Monday to
throw out 81 pounds of marijuana found Feb. 12 in the gas tank of a station
wagon crossing the border. O'Toole said he is using that case to challenge
the circuit court's decision.

Scores of vehicles every day are selected for a thorough search at San
Ysidro, which is the world's busiest border crossing and links San Diego
and Tijuana, Mexico.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that anyone entering the United States is
subject to routine, random searches without the need for a warrant. Since
drugs are so commonly found in gas tanks, border inspectors have considered
such searches routine.

But the appeals court said that gas-tank searches are too intrusive to be
considered routine because they require lifting a vehicle and disconnecting
the tank from the chassis.

The ruling covers border crossings within the court's territory, which
includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Montana and Washington.