BORDER HUNT FOR TERRORISTS REVEALS RISING FLOW OF DRUGS

Smugglers Run Out Of Patience, Willing To Risk Tough Security

EL PASO, Texas - At the Santa Fe International Bridge in El Paso, customs
inspectors looking for terrorists are flinging open hoods and trunks,
knocking on body panels and getting down on their hands and knees to peek
under vehicles.

Last week, they found nearly 50 packages of marijuana, weighing a total of
70 pounds, in a false gas tank in a shiny Toyota Tercel.

The seizure illustrates what Customs Service and Border Patrol officials
are seeing: Drug smugglers are getting back to business - and drug seizures
are up sharply - after a lull prompted by the stepped-up security along the
U.S.-Mexican border that followed the terrorist attacks.

Investigators say smugglers are trying to get more drugs across the border
to make up lost profits.

"They're desperate," said Carlos Quevedo, a spokesman for the Border Patrol
at McAllen, Texas. "They don't even care if it's daylight. They just want
to get lucky."

Before Sept. 11, most vehicles were waved through border checkpoints. Now,
with border officials on the highest level of alert, nearly every vehicle
gets looked over, including an examination of the trunk and engine compartment.

In the two weeks after the terrorist attacks, drug seizures along the
1,962-mile U.S.-Mexican border fell 80 percent compared with the same
period last year. But the trend has reversed.

Drug smugglers "decided to wait it out, hoping it would go back to the way
it was, and that hasn't happened," said Vincent Bond, customs spokesman in
Southern California. So "they decided to risk the increased scrutiny."

Customs Service seizures of marijuana between Sept. 24 and Oct. 25 were up
- - 58 percent along the South Texas border, 394 percent in Arizona. More
than 32,000 pounds were confiscated in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

In Southern California, where the records are kept differently, an 11
percent increase in marijuana seizures was recorded in the first 25 days of
October. Nearly 31,500 pounds were seized.

The situation is similar at the U.S.-Canadian border, though the quantities
are far smaller than at the Southwest border, said Dean Boyd, a customs
spokesman in Washington. The Canadian border is not as closely guarded as
the nation's southern edge.

Marijuana smugglers are in a bind because the end of September marked their
harvest and dealers are eager to move old supplies, Boyd said. Increased
scrutiny of U.S. airspace means flying drugs into the United States is no
longer a good option, he said.

"They owe people and they need to get it to market," he said.

Cocaine is the second most commonly seized drug, though in far less gaudy
amounts. For every Southwest border state except Arizona, seizures
increased between Sept. 24 and Oct. 25 compared with the same period last year.

In Arizona, smugglers are using backpacks or pack horses to avoid official
border crossings. That means Border Patrol agents also are picking up
narcotics.