Border Inspections Continue to Cause Massive Traffic Snarl

Long lines of traffic continued to mar the holiday weekend for motorists crossing the International Border here Sunday, as U.S. Customs and Immigration officials kept up their exhaustive search of cars for clues to the kidnaping of an American drug enforcement agent in Mexico.

A Customs spokesman said the wait at the world’s busiest port of entry averaged more than two hours Sunday and predicted that lines could be longer today as travelers wrap up their stays in Mexico and begin heading home.

“It would not surprise me if the traffic Monday is even heavier than it’s already been,” said Larry Adkins, acting chief inspector at San Ysidro. “I just hope the traveling public can continue to bear with us and be patient.”

Those crossing the border on foot fared somewhat better, Adkins said, waiting 30 minutes or less before passing through. And officials at the new border crossing in Otay Mesa reported only minor tie-ups throughout the day.

Adkins said customs inspectors, assisted by Border Patrol agents, were continuing a thorough check of cars belonging to non-U.S. citizens and to “any others deemed appropriate by the inspector.” Customs and Drug Enforcement Administration officials in Washington initially ordered a check of every vehicle entering the United States from Mexico during the Presidents’ Birthday weekend but narrowed their target after traffic snarls kept some motorists waiting more than seven hours Saturday morning.

Overall, the number of cars crossing the border dipped below the average as the weekend progressed, a trend Adkins attributed to “increasing public awareness of the situation” and the unpleasant prospect of being held captive by a traffic jam.

“On Saturday, we had only about 19,000 cars coming through, compared to the 31,000 we’d get on a typical Saturday,” Adkins said. A count for Sunday was not available.

Despite the decline in tourist travel, customs officials said they had received no complaints from Tijuana merchants who depend on weekend visitors.

The massive border search was ordered in an attempt to find clues into the Feb. 7 disappearance of Enrique S. Camarena, an 11-year veteran of the DEA who was abducted at gunpoint in Guadalajara, Mexico, by four suspected drug traffickers. It was the first known kidnaping of an American DEA agent in Mexico.

The intensified inspections were initiated to “assist the DEA in their efforts to find their agent” and to “send a message to smuggling organizations that we’re serious about this drug war and will not submit to threats, acts of kidnaping or anything else they might try,” said Mike Fleming, a customs spokesman in Southern California.

Fleming said the searches will continue throughout the holiday weekend and perhaps beyond, “until we get other instructions from Washington.”

Federal officials declined to comment on whether the inspections are designed to get Mexican authorities to work harder to find the missing agent and his abductors.

Wire services reports quoted a spokesman for the DEA in Washington Sunday as saying Colombian narcotics traffickers apparently have offered up to $350,000 for the kidnaping of Drug Enforcement Administration chief Francis M. Mullen, or another high DEA official.

He said concern over the kidnap threat and the continuing efforts to hunt for Camarena had prompted DEA to request intensified Customs Service searches along the U.S.-Mexico border over the weekend.

An unidentified Customs agent in Laredo, Tex., told the Associated Press Saturday that authorities were seeking Colombian terrorists.