Drug Task Force Seizes 737 Pounds of Cocaine in 2 Trucks at Border

Authorities seized 737 pounds of cocaine at the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday night as smugglers in two pickup trucks attempted to bring the contraband into the United States, officials said Friday.

The seizures, with a street value of $38 million, were among the largest ever recorded along the 180-mile border between California and Mexico, and they culminate a series of major border interdictions in recent months.

On Dec. 8, U. S. Customs Service authorities at the border post in Calexico say, they found 487 pounds of cocaine concealed in a vehicle--a discovery that was described at the time as the largest single Customs seizure along the California-Mexico border. Cocaine seizures of 402 and 475 pounds were made at San Ysidro in September and March, respectively, and a 306-pound load was interdicted at Calexico in November.

‘Premature’ to Speculate

Despite the recent large-scale seizures, federal and local authorities were hesitant Friday to declare that there is any surge in the volume of cocaine being shipped across the notoriously porous border, which has long been a favored entry point for traffickers. The large seizures, officials said, may just reflect more successful interdiction efforts.

“I think it’s premature to conclude that more is coming across the border,” said Ronald S. Garibotto, an assistant special agent in charge with the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.

Nonetheless, cocaine seizures have been sharply escalating throughout the California border area. Customs Service agents in California seized 9,505 pounds of cocaine in the border region in fiscal 1988, which ended last Sept. 30, almost quadrupling the 2,724 pounds seized in all of fiscal 1987, said Maryanne Noonan, a Customs Service spokeswoman in Los Angeles.

However, drug seizures by the U. S. Border Patrol in San Diego declined during the same period. San Diego-based patrol agents, who monitor the vast areas between the ports of entry, seized $17 million worth of illicit drugs in fiscal 1988, down from $22 million in fiscal 1987. The figures include interdictions of cocaine and all other drugs.

Despite the escalation in seizures by the Customs Service, the DEA’s Garibotto dismissed speculation that increased regulatory pressure in Florida may have prompted some traffickers to divert their routes to the California border, as has has occurred in the past.

Officials said that Thursday’s seizure, although significant, would not put a serious dent in the nation’s multibillion-dollar cocaine supply network. “It is not going to have a long-term substantial effect upon the amount of cocaine in the United States,” Garibotto said at a news conference in National City.

Novel Packaging

In a novel twist, many of the cocaine bricks seized in the latest action were packaged in plaster of Paris and a nylon cloth--an apparent effort to avoid detection by drug-sniffing dogs that are in wide use at the ports of entry.

Officials said they had been tipped in advance that the two drug-ferrying pickups were planning to cross the border. Customs agents directed the vehicles to proceed to the “secondary,” or supplemental inspection area, where the cocaine, packaged in one-kilo bricks, was discovered stuffed into hidden compartments. The four occupants of the vehicles were arrested. Authorities said the investigation was continuing. They would not say where the cocaine was destined to be shipped.

The seizure came after a three-month investigation by the San Diego County Integrated Narcotic Task Force, a 15-year-old unit composed of 60 officers from an array of federal and local police agencies. It was by far the largest cocaine seizure in task force history, said task force Lt. A. L. DiCerchio, who said the next-largest totaled about 50 pounds.

Those arrested, all said to be U. S. citizens, were identified as Sixto Humberto Sanchez, 32, and Richard Trinidad Terrones, 37, both of National City, and Humberto Gastellum Miller, 49, and Reyes Acebes Barajas, 42, both of San Diego. Each was booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center on charges of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine, authorities said.