TIGHTER AIRPORT SECURITY EQUALS MORE HIGHWAY DRUG BUSTS, OFFICIALS SAY

JACKSON, Miss.- Routine traffic stops are turning into drug busts more
often in Mississippi, an apparent drug-flow change attributed by many law
officers to tighter airport security.

The latest figures available show law enforcement agencies made 278 drug
seizures on state highways from Sept. 11 to March 31, compared with 151 in
the same period the year prior _ an 84 percent increase.

The law enforcement agencies recovered 7,352 pounds of cocaine, marijuana
and methamphetamines from Sept. 11 to March 31, compared with 3,535 pounds
of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines in the same period a year earlier.

"People trying to transport drugs through the air has all but shut down
since 9-11 because of the security," said James Hawkins, head of the High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task forces in Mississippi.

At Jackson International Airport, there have been two busts since Sept. 11,
Hawkins said, but none in the past 90 days.

By next year, security at airports across the country will be even tighter.
Machines that can detect explosives will be installed in airport baggage areas.

"The logical thing on the part of the potential drug smugglers is: Don't
use the airports. Don't risk getting searched and your luggage getting
checked," Hawkins said.

Most of the drug seizures on Mississippi highways are being made on the
interstates _ I-10, I-20, I-55 and I-59, Hawkins said.

And the majority of those seizures have been on the east-west corridors,
Hawkins said.

"Everything coming from the Mexican border going to the East Coast comes
through here either on I-10 or I-20," Hawkins said. "It's a direct route to
Atlanta, Philadelphia and everything on the eastern seaboard."

Hawkins said the state is "probably not getting 10 percent of the drugs
coming through," and there needs to be more focus on the issue.

But some officials believe the FBI's focus on terrorism might translate to
an increase in drug trafficking and local government corruption on the
local level.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has proposed shifting more than 500 agents to
anti-terrorism work from drug interdiction and white-collar crime casework.

"They are robbing Peter to pay Paul," said William J. Johnson, executive
director of the National Association of Police Organizations. "The drugs
and white-collar crimes are not going to go away, and local police
departments are going to have to pick up the slack."

Some fear that because local agencies can't work across state lines, drug
arrests will drop.

"A lot of these (local) agencies have been using these federal agencies as
a crutch," said Chester Quarles, a professor of criminology at the
University of Mississippi who has authored books on terrorism and criminal
justice. "By losing these assets, certain areas are going to become drug
dynasties."

"We're going to see corruption soar without the feds being there," Quarles
said.

Hancock County Sheriff Steve Garber didn't sound distressed by Mueller's
proposals, but he did acknowledge that his office is crippled in tracking
crimes that bounce from state to state, and he expressed concern about the
bureau diminishing its presence.

According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse
University clearinghouse of federal statistics, the FBI made 38 referrals
to Mississippi federal prosecutors in 2001 in investigation of official
corruption.