Drug smuggling returns to normal level after attacks brought lull

Pressure of doing business makes smugglers try runs past South Texas checkpoints

By Jeremy Schwartz

Drug smuggling in South Texas has returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels after an initial two-week lull, even as law enforcement groups like U.S. Customs and the Coast Guard shift their focus from trafficking to anti-terrorism.

In the 14 days following the attacks on New York City and Washington D.C., drug seizures in the area slowed to a trickle as enhanced security along the border caused smugglers to sit on their loads.

Immediately after the attacks, U.S. Customs went to its highest level of response, Alert Level 1, in which customs inspectors examine almost every person and vehicle crossing the border. The result was two-hour lines at some ports of entry and, at least at first, caution from smugglers.

"Drug traffickers are criminals, but like legitimate businessmen they have to make payroll," said Kevin Bell, spokesman for U.S. Customs. "After awhile, they couldn't continue to sit on these loads."

17 days, $39 million

Since Sept. 24, Customs cocaine seizures in South Texas have more than tripled compared to the same time last year. Customs agents have seized more than 2,000 pounds more of marijuana than they did last year over the same time period.

U.S. Border Patrol agents in South Texas have been equally busy.

From Oct. 1 to Oct. 17, Border Patrol agents in the McAllen sector, which includes U.S. Highways 77 and 281 and their checkpoints, seized more marijuana and cocaine than the other eight Border Patrol sectors on the Mexican border combined.

In those 17 days, the McAllen Sector seized more than $39 million worth of narcotics.

Eligio Peña, assistant agent in charge at the Falfurrias Border Patrol station, said the weeks following the attacks saw a sharp decrease in drug cases, which have since picked back up at the nation's busiest drug checkpoint.

"It's steady, but it's still not as high as we would like it," he said.

At the Falfurrias checkpoint, the amount of cocaine and marijuana seized between Sept. 11 and Oct. 31 dropped by 2,076 pounds, or about 20 percent.

The checkpoint seized almost 70 percent of the marijuana it caught in September before the attacks.

Open coasts

While it's largely business as usual for the land-based drug interdiction agencies, the mission for local Coast Guard members and airborne Customs officers has changed drastically.

Nationally, 75 percent of Coast Guard resources are directed at patrolling the country's ports. Before Sept. 11, the Coast Guard expended a negligible amount of energy on port security. Those resources are now taken from other peace time goals, such as drug interdiction.

"We are doing some drug interdictions, but it is making it harder for us to interdict drugs," said Coast Guard spokesman Rick Wester. "We're not down where we should be."

According to Drug Enforcement Administration Chief Asa Hutchinson, traffickers are taking advantage of the Coast Guard's absence and increased their output by 25 percent in the Caribbean in the month after the attacks.

Lt. Wendy Hart, spokeswoman for the Corpus Christi Coast Guard group, said the group's boats and members are concentrating on patrolling the waters just outside the Port of Corpus Christi.

Focus on security

Because the group has basically the same amount of resources it did Sept. 10, it isn't able to do as many drug interdiction patrols near Brownsville as it used to. "It (just) takes common sense to figure that out," she said.

"Port security and search and rescue have become our primary missions."

A bill that would give the Coast Guard additional funds for its port security operations is going through Congress.

"But that's a short-term fix," Wester said. "We still have to figure out what our future is going to be."

For the U.S. Customs Service's Surveillance Support Center at Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi, the future appears to lie in homeland security.

Clear skies

The center, one of two in the country that operate radar planes, used to do about 90 percent of its work in drug-producing countries, especially Colombia.

All that changed Sept. 11.

"Right now, our top priority is terrorism," said Bell.

The station's P-3 radar planes have been drafted by the Pentagon for radar and tracking missions over the United States.

Douglas Garner, commander of the Corpus Christi station, said that in their new role, the P-3's are both patrolling American airspace and looking for specific things. "It depends on the threat," he said.

Garner said at least one of the center's planes is on alert or airborne at all times, but would not say how the center's new duties would affect its drug interdiction mission.

Customs spokesman Dean Boyd said resources have been diverted to some extent. "It's a question of not ignoring our drug interdiction mission," Boyd said. "But we were called and asked to protect the country from terrorism and we can't turn that down."

Contact Jeremy Schwartz at 886-3618 or schwartzj@caller.com

November 18, 2001