|
|
| Border Alert Keeps Drug Shipments at a Crawl |
|
Posted by FoM on September 22, 2001 at 07:05:49 PT By Ricardo Sandoval, Dallas Morning News Source: Seattle Times 
Mexican traffickers have all but frozen daily shipments of illegal drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border amid a massive buildup of U.S. Customs Service inspectors and National Guard troops. Daily drug seizures along the Mexican border have dropped to almost zero since last week's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, say Mexican and U.S. law-enforcement officials. That's a direct result of U.S. authorities searching almost every passenger and commercial vehicle crossing the border, U.S. Customs Service officials said. National Guard units are supporting the hundreds of extra Customs agents patrolling the Mexican and Canadian borders and major airports "Traffickers watch us very closely, so they know we are now on a very tough security footing," said Customs Service spokesman Dean Boyd. "If I were a smuggler, I would not want to be trying to send anything illegal across the border right now." The growing stockpiles of illegal drugs waiting to be shipped across the border into the United States could soon start affecting the street price of cocaine, heroin and marijuana, Mexican authorities said. "How long they can hold shipments is a good question," Boyd said. "These guys have bills to pay, too, so they must be getting anxious." While it's too soon to quantify the slowdown, Mexican authorities along the border and in Mexico City said they've noticed a reduction in drug-related activity, primarily in the busy Tijuana-San Diego border region. That area supplies a majority of the cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines sold on the streets of the western United States. Almost two-thirds of the cocaine sold in the United States is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border. On a normal day — before the terrorist alert — U.S. officials capture up to 20 vehicle shipments of drugs in San Diego and El Paso, which together record as many as 75,000 vehicle crossings each day. One or two loads a day have been seized in the last week, Customs Service officials said. Activity at other busy drug-trafficking spots in Mexico has slowed, Mexican officials added. At the Tijuana International Airport, for example, there have been only two seizures since Sept. 11 — for small amounts of heroin. Before the terrorist strike, Mexican police said there was a significant confiscation almost every other day. "It seems as though the drug dealers don't want to risk seizures of their products with all this extra police activity," said a Mexican federal prosecutor in Tijuana. The last time the border was this tight was shortly before Jan. 1, 2000, when U.S. officials went on a Level One alert after the arrest of a suspected terrorist who attempted to cross from Canada to Washington state with explosive materials. But that lockdown was short-lived, and officials did not have time to register its effect on drug activity. The current crawl at major border crossings — up to four-hour waits for vehicle crossings into Texas at various times of the day — reminds officials of the Customs Service crackdown in 1984, after the murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena by Mexican drug traffickers. Complete Title: Heightened Border Alert Keeps Drug Shipments from Mexico at a Crawl Source: Seattle Times (WA) Related Articles: Tight Border Security Slows Trafficking Border Drug Crackdown a Waste? Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
 |
| Comment #3 posted by FoM on September 22, 2001 at 11:39:10 PT |
| Hi Everyone,
I don't know about all of you but I am in a very quiet mood. I wonder where we are headed and I wonder how this war will effect us. How low does the Stock Market have to go until they call it a Crash? When does it become a Depression instead of calling it a Recession or major slump?How will it make life harder or easier? The news is always slow on the weekends but much more so now so I sure would like to read how you all feel about your own future? Just a few questions if you want to answer them and if not that's sure fine. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by i420 on September 22, 2001 at 11:17:13 PT |
| Buy American !!!! That imported stuff will kill you.
They have tried for decades to stop the flow into our country geee why didn't they think of this sooner. Maybe we should thank those terrorist for "saving our children from the flow of illegal drugs coming into america" Satire is so sad but true. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 22, 2001 at 08:59:58 PT |
| About half of the cannabis purchased in the USA is produced in the USA. All the War on Terrorism has done is to raise import tarriffs. Marc Emery reports the Canada->US smugglers have doubled their rates from $500CDN/lb. to $1,000CDN/lb. [ Post Comment ] |
| Post Comment |  |
 |  |