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| Officials Report Drop in Drug Smuggling |
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Posted by FoM on September 28, 2001 at 15:48:51 PT By Fox Butterfield Source: New York Times 
Tightened security along the border with Mexico since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 has helped reduce the flow of illegal drugs, as cautious smugglers from Mexico have cut back on their shipments to avoid having them seized, Customs officials say.The officials said that with many more vehicles being searched, the number of drug seizures had fallen almost by half and the amount of drugs seized had taken a precipitous drop along the entire border with Mexico in the past two weeks, compared with the same period a year ago. "The drug dealers are not stupid," said Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the United States Customs Service. "They watch us very closely, and they know we are on maximum alert now, so they just decided not to move their product for a while, or to look for another route." But Mr. Boyd said the drop was probably only temporary, and in fact in the past few days there has been an increase in seizures in some areas, including El Paso. "It's a business," he said, "and they've got too much product and people owe other people too much money not to start trying to move it." Law enforcement officials said the two-week decline in smuggling was too small an event to change the overall supply and price of drugs like heroin, cocaine and marijuana in the United States. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration does not even try to measure changes in the drug market over such a short period, a spokesman said. But the temporary drop after terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was sizable, officials said. From Sept. 11 to Sept. 23, Mr. Boyd said, 8,707 pounds of drugs were seized by Customs agents in 123 incidents along the entire border, from Brownsville, Tex., to San Diego. In the same period last year, there were 44,160 pounds of drugs seized in 227 incidents, he said. Mr. Boyd said the Immigration and Naturalization Service also reported fewer illegal immigrants trying to cross into the United States after Sept. 11. Within hours of the terrorist attacks, Mr. Boyd said, Customs and immigration inspectors were stopping and searching as many vehicles as possible and questioning every pedestrian that entered the United States from Mexico. Normally, agents question everyone but conduct searches only when they think they have grounds for suspicion. Note: The new American war on terrorism has scored an unintentional victory, though it may be temporary. Source: New York Times (NY) Related Articles: Seizures Down Sharply Amid Security Squeeze Open Borders are Early Casualties of War Border Alert Keeps Drug Shipments at a Crawl Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #1 posted by Silent_Observer on September 28, 2001 at 16:00:03 PT |
| that all illegal drugs are imported? [ Post Comment ] |
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