Drug Problem Serious, and ‘Getting Worse’

The drug problem in San Diego County is “alarmingly serious” and figures to get “much worse” before it gets better, an assistant U. S. attorney and coordinator of a federal drug enforcement task force said Thursday. The comments come on the heels of a report by the U. S. attorney general that Southern California is the drug capital of the nation.

Stephen Nelson, who works in the San Diego office of U. S. Atty. William Braniff, said the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force has pinpointed San Diego as a focal point of international drug smuggling and as one of the leading centers of “clandestine” methamphetamine labs.

“It’s Mind-Boggling”

“Los Angeles has four to five times the number of people as San Diego,” Nelson said, “so they have a correspondingly higher demand. But San Diego probably has a greater trans-shipment problem across the international border. The numbers of people coming through at San Ysidro (more than 44 million a year), the flow of cash and the money being exchanged (at some money exchange businesses) down there, much of it drug-related. . . . It’s mind-boggling.”

Braniff and 92 other U. S. attorneys worked for almost a year on extensive studies that outline the severity of the nation’s drug problem. The reports probed “hot spots” region by region, showing that California is “uniquely vulnerable” to the blight of narcotics.

The attorney general’s report shows that California supplies the country with half of its cocaine, 80% of its PCP and the most of its methamphetamine. Gang-related side effects, including drive-by shootings, have increased dramatically.

Braniff’s report notes that 30 tons of cocaine are smuggled through Mexico each year, much of it coming through San Ysidro, and that felony drug arrests in the city of San Diego increased 97.2% in the past eight years.

Nelson, who helped compile Braniff’s report, said San Diego’s situation has worsened as drug-enforcement measures have improved in Florida and elsewhere.

“That traffic has to go somewhere,” he said, “and our situation is exacerbated by the economic realities of Mexico. Narcotics are a major source of revenue; heroin and marijuana are cash crops.”

Marijuana and heroin are being grown in bountiful supply throughout Mexico, Nelson said, adding that major international drug cartels headquartered in Colombia and Bolivia use Mexico as a “staging” or refueling center. Much of that traffic infiltrates San Diego County.

“Of equal importance to those of us heading off the problem in San Diego is the local consumption of crack, heroin, cocaine and marijuana,” Nelson said. “Gangs are an ever-present problem. In all, it’s a corrosive, devastating problem of widespread proportions. I’m afraid it threatens to get dramatically worse before it gets better.”

Nelson acknowledged that, in the past seven to eight years, San Diego has come to be known as the “crystal meth” capital of the world. He said clandestine labs are being uncovered throughout the county, posing problems not only in drug enforcement but in even more troubling ways.

“Labs present terrible toxic waste and health problems to the public at large,” he said. “These houses are saturated with toxic chemicals and hybrid designer products that even chemists have trouble deciphering. They pose fire hazards, threaten to trigger explosions, and, when dumped in a back yard, they contaminate the ground and ground waters. The toxic-waste aspect of labs is just beginning to rear its ugly head.”

Drugs Saturate Court Cases

Nelson said drugs are involved in half to 75% of all cases covering federal indictments.

“We’re absolutely buried in cases.”

To stop the flow of drugs, he said, “We have to hit them on all fronts. We have to have stiffer sentences. Education is a major component. We have to educate people that drugs are a cancer on society, a corrosive element that not only kills the user eventually but tears apart families and ruins relationships.

“We had a case the other day in San Diego involving a father teaching a 14-year-old son how to cook methamphetamine. He was bragging to people that his son was better at it than he was.”