FEWER N.M. GUARD WATCH FOR SMUGGLERS AT BORDER

EL PASO - Tucked out of view from the early-morning motorists entering the
United States on the Bridge of the Americas is a white Chevrolet Suburban
carrying a faint odor of drugs. A narcotics-sniffing dog picked up the
scent. Two men in fatigues stand under the SUV after it has been hoisted on
a lift looking for signs of tampering - false floors, perhaps, or other
hidden compartments.

The men, members of the New Mexico National Guard, examine the underside
with a snakelike fiber optic scope, probing the gas tank and other cavities
for signs of a smuggler's touch. Ultimately, they found nothing suspicious.

But in the meantime, U.S. Customs agents who yanked the SUV from the
crawling traffic were able to return to their posts, questioning drivers
and searching for other cars possibly involved in the unending illicit drug
caravan.

For more than a decade, members of the New Mexico National Guard have
crossed state lines to assist their Texas counterparts and federal agencies
watching the El Paso border bridges, one of many tasks they have in the
drug war. But new defense fighting abroad and boosted security at home has
snagged the nation's attention - and military dollars.

Helping America's terrorism response, in part, is money that was previously
spent to stem drug traffic, causing layoffs and creating other staffing
problems for the Guard.

Nationally, the defense budget approved earlier this year by President Bush
cut funding for counterdrug programs by nearly a quarter for the current
fiscal year, down from $204 million to $156.5 million. In New Mexico, which
Border Patrol officials suspect is an expanding corridor for drug running,
the National Guard's drug-interdiction budget sunk by $600,000 to $4.4
million, the lowest level in five years.

Less money means less staffing. In the last fiscal year, 114 Guardsmen
worked border detail. Now there are 84.

"Losing 30 support personnel has been a real hit for us," said one Army
Guard officer.

With fewer Guardsmen, federal law enforcement officials say they fear the
amount of drugs entering the United States is going to rise.

"We consider the Guard a good friend," said U.S. Customs spokesman Roger
Maier. "We could not have had the success we're having today without the
Guard's support."

'Supporting Roles'

In some ways, the National Guard has a hands-off role along the 180- mile
border between Mexico and New Mexico.

Military troops are generally prohibited from enforcing domestic law.
Instead, the National Guard provides "supporting roles" for federal, state
and local law enforcement agencies, said Army National Guard officials.

For example, Guardsmen are prohibited from arresting people or taking
custody of seized property. They can, however, saw open fuel tanks from
vehicles authorized by law enforcement officials and perform observation of
border crossings.

The stopped Suburban at the Bridge of the Americas is a representative
picture of the Guard's border work: Out of public sight and only with
Customs' authorization, troops search a seized vehicle, disassemble it if
need be and extract any stowed narcotics. The Guardsmen are unarmed, keep
their names on their uniforms hidden with tape and have almost no
interaction with the passing drivers.

Maier and others with law enforcement offices said the Guard provides
expertise. Getting a fuel tank off a suspect vehicle takes the Guardsmen,
who have years of hands-on training in auto shop assignments, about 20 or
30 minutes.

"If I were an inspector and needed to drop a tank, that would be an all-day
proposition," Maier said. "I could put it back together, but with a few
parts left behind."

Having Guard troops assist Customs and Border Patrol in tearing apart
suspect vehicles gives law enforcement agents more time to watch incoming
cars, pickups and buses, Maier said.

Off-Road Traffic

Motor vehicles are the containers of choice for getting marijuana, cocaine,
heroin and methamphetamine shipments from Latin America into the United
States. Bundles of the stuff are packed under floorboards, behind panels
and seats, inside tires, engines, dashboards and false compartments welded
inside gas tanks.

But modified pickups aren't the only way to move narcotics.

Inside the Border Patrol's Deming Station, agents watch pedestrians walk
through the desert landscape just north of Columbus. Day and night, their
images are picked up on seven 60-foot-tall towers topped with video cameras
and adjusted by remote control.

The walkers, most likely hired by smugglers in Mexico, carry makeshift
knapsacks - a burlap bag with two strips of cloth attached for shoulder
straps. Inside each is a load of marijuana weighing between 30 and 50
pounds, said Jaime Perez, a Border Patrol watch commander.

These couriers will spend two or three days with their loads walking
through the desert to a rendezvous point on Interstate 10. They will try to
dodge dehydration, snakes and capture on their trek, motivated by the
promise of $2,000 or so for successful passage, Perez said.

In the 30-mile stretch of desert and farmland between Mexico and I-10, the
National Guard lends its eyes to the Border Patrol. On the ground, troops
monitor the images picked up by the 250-millimeter lenses on the video
camera towers and report sightings to the Border Patrol. In the air, the
National Guard flies three Vietnam-era OH-58 "Kiowa" helicopters to help
locate smugglers and other illegal entrants.

The National Guard's work "frees us up to go where we otherwise aren't able
to go," said Perez.

Not everyone crossing the border is caught.

About 12 hours after Guardsmen began looking at the Suburban, two pilots
aboard a Kiowa were flying 300 feet above the desert floor looking for an
evasive suspect. A few miles north of the border, a Border Patrol agent has
stopped four pedestrians in a group of five trying to enter the United
States at night. The fifth ran back, possibly headed for nearby Palomas,
Mexico.

The Kiowa combs over the terrain, looking for a runner with the help of an
infrared camera, going back and forth from Columbus to the stopped Border
Patrol vehicle. Their 20-minute search ends unsuccessfully.

On The Rise

Even with the misses, authorities catch tons of drugs coming through El
Paso, Columbus and Santa Teresa.

For 1999, the National Guard helped seize 47 tons of narcotics, mostly
marijuana. That figure more than doubled by last year, with 97 tons being
captured, and the upward trend continues. So far, authorities have 40,000
more pounds of drugs than at this time last year.

On Feb. 19, agents found 1,555 pounds of cocaine - estimated by the Drug
Enforcement Agency to have a $22 million street value - on a bus coming
into El Paso. That single bust outweighed all the combined cocaine seized
at the El Paso crossing last year, officials said.

Overall border security was tightened up following the September terrorist
attacks. Every driver coming from Mexico can expect border agents to
inspect the underside, hood and trunk of their vehicle, officials said.
Before September, about one in eight vehicles received that inspection.

The increased work for agents causes long lines and, National Guard
officials said, arguably a stronger need for troops.

But cuts to the program mean "we're just not providing the level of support
to law enforcement that they need," one Guardsman said.