Smugglers Shifting to California, Officials Say

U.S. Customs agents at the San Ysidro border crossing seized more cocaine in October and November than they did in the preceding 12 months, customs regional commissioner Quintin Villanueva said Thursday.

Villanueva joined other state, local and federal law enforcement officials who testified in San Diego before the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control that drug trafficking is “out of control” in California. He said that the border seizures of cocaine during the first two months of fiscal year 1986 totaled 131 pounds.

In fiscal year 1985--Oct. 1, 1984, through Sept. 30, 1985--agents seized 103 pounds of the drug at San Ysidro, Villanueva said. The year before, only 10 pounds of cocaine were seized.

Villanueva used the statistics to emphasize what he and other law enforcement officials said is a growing concern that a massive law enforcement crackdown in southern Florida is causing smugglers to transport illegal drugs through Mexico and into California.

Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp suggested that the state is losing the war on drugs.

“The flow of drugs across our border with Mexico is out of control. Heroin and especially cocaine are flooding the state,” Van de Kamp said. He warned that “if present trends continue, there is a real danger that California will contend with Florida with the dubious title of drug capital of the nation.”

In 1984, Drug Enforcement Administration agents in California were seizing an average of 22 kilos of cocaine per month, Van de Kamp said. In 1985 that figure jumped to 125 kilos per month.

The attorney general said that a surge of “cocaine killings” in the state by organized Cuban, Colombian and domestic criminals formerly based in Florida has accompanied the increase in cocaine traffic. He cited the 1985 slayings of former UCLA football star Kermit Alexander’s entire family in Los Angeles as proof that today’s cocaine peddlers are trained “in the ‘Miami Vice’ school of senseless violence.”

Alexander’s family was killed by contract killers who hit the wrong house.

Van de Kamp warned that state law enforcement agencies alone cannot deal with the increased drug traffic. He praised Nancy Reagan’s work in the drug prevention field but sharply criticized President Reagan’s cutbacks in federal drug abuse and prevention programs.

“We’ve had inspirational leadership from Mrs. Reagan. Unfortunately, her husband’s budgets have been less inspirational,” Van de Kamp said. He said the Administration’s funding for drug education programs dropped from $14 million in 1981 to $2.9 million in 1984.

Van de Kamp also attacked the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction act, which he said has already proven disastrous on the war against drugs by cutting back funds used to combat the problem. Earlier, Van de Kamp complained that “the weekly shooting budget of NBC’s ‘Miami Vice’ television series is 30% higher than the annual budget for the real vice squad in the City of Miami.”

Other law enforcement officials presented disturbing statistics that show an increase in drug use among high school students. San Diego County Sheriff John Duffy said that a survey of local high school students showed that 32% of them have tried cocaine. A similar nationwide survey showed that only 16% of the country’s high school students had tried the drug.

Robert Jackson, deputy director of the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, testified that synthetic heroin and other “designer drugs” have caused 106 deaths in California. Jackson said that state officials expect to see about a death a week caused by these new drugs. He said that California has become the nation’s source for synthetic drugs.

Several of the experts who testified before the committee suggested that the only long-term solution of the problem is to begin drug education programs in elementary school. However, committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said that, for that approach to succeed, state and local officials will have to convince the Reagan Administration to stop the cutbacks in federal funding and make more money available to local schools to educate the young about the dangers of drug abuse.

The committee is leaving today for Mexico City, where they will meet with government officials and discuss ways to stop the flow of drugs across the border.

But Van de Kamp warned that, as long as Americans are willing to consume cocaine and heroin, “we cannot stop criminals from selling it to them.” He said that “no amount of pressure on foreign governments, no amount of enforcement at our borders, and no amount of police protection within those borders will stop the traffic totally.”