Border interdiction lagging

Booming trade with Mexico has posed a major challenge to agents and inspectors of the United States Customs Service, who have the lead responsibility for preventing the cross-border importation of illegal drugs.

Roughly 70 percent of all cocaine enters the United States across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to DEA. Yet, according to an investigation conducted by the Los Angeles Times, (Note 48) not a single kilogram of cocaine was confiscated from the more than two million trucks entering the country through three of the busiest points of entry along the Southwest border during fiscal year 1994. (Note 49) Customs agents seized 802 kilograms of cocaine from all commercial border traffic during fiscal year 1994, compared with 3.5 mt. in fiscal year 1993 when commercial traffic was lighter.

The Customs Service has taken a number of steps to address the decline in seizures along the Southwest border. On February 25, 1995, Customs announced Operation "HARD LINE," an initiative to fortify ports of entry against so-called "port runners," car and truck drivers who smash through inspection stations with a cargo of illegal drugs. (Note 50) Another HARD LINE initiative involved the application of new technology to the fight against smuggling.

Encouragingly, border seizures of cocaine increased somewhat with the advent of Operation HARD LINE, although overall Customs Service cocaine seizures for fiscal year 1995 remain 25 percent below the 1992 level. (Note 51)

Preliminary indications suggest that the push to apply new inspection technology has not been as successful as hoped. The $3.2 million Otay Mesa backscatter X-ray scanner, the first of a number of building-size X-ray devices to be installed along the Southwest border, finished out its first year of operations without detecting a single gram of cocaine, despite scanning an average of 1,900 trailers and vans per day. (Note 52)