Border Inspections Eased and Drug Seizures Plunge : Customs: Corruption probes focus on U.S. policy to promote Mexico trade. Few trucks are examined.

The amount of cocaine seized from Mexican trucks and cargo at the border plummeted last year, as U.S. Customs Service officials pressed on with a program to promote trade by letting most commercial cargo pass into this country without inspection.

Not a single pound of cocaine was confiscated from more than 2 million trucks that passed through three of the busiest entry points along the Southwest border where federal officials say most of the drug enters the country.

Of the 62,000 pounds of cocaine that Customs seized from commercial cargo nationwide, less than a ton was taken from shipments along the border with Mexico.

One reason for the sharp decline in seizures is that Customs officials appear to be doing a poor job of identifying and inspecting those trucks and cargo containers being used for drug smuggling, according to an internal report obtained by The Times.

“The target selection methods are . . . critical and apparently in more need of improvements given the huge number of examinations without success,” said the Dec. 13 report by a Customs analyst.

Officials say liberalized importing procedures have dramatically increased the number of trucks crossing the border from Mexico, producing trade benefits for both countries. And now the Customs Service is considering new measures to speed up the entry of air and auto travelers into the United States.

But, according to records and interviews, the facilitation policy also has become the focal point of wide-ranging corruption probes at a number of Southwest border crossings and inspection facilities.

Since last summer, federal authorities have been looking into allegations that corrupt Customs officials and inspectors are tipping smugglers that certain shipments and vehicles have been targeted for narcotics inspections.

Sources said investigators also are examining allegations that:

* Some inspectors and officials in San Diego were bribed by Mexican drug rings to remove intelligence information from Customs computers.

Investigators also are focusing on allegations that smugglers are transporting drugs in the uninspected trucks that bring cargo from Mexico.

A principal target, sources said, is an inspector who in 1990 attempted to release a propane tanker although drug-sniffing dogs had sounded an alarm. The tanker later was found to be carrying four tons of cocaine.

* Inspectors and officials in the Long Beach area were bribed to allow drugs from Mexico and contraband, including AK-47 rifles and ammunition from China, to be smuggled into the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in ship containers.

The investigation is concentrating on private warehouses in the Long Beach area where cargo containers are examined by Customs inspectors for contraband, drugs and compliance with importation laws. The warehouses are customarily paid a fee for use of their facilities and assisting in the inspections.

But sources said importers allegedly were charged up to $425 per container for hundreds of examinations that were never done. Investigators have been told that two Customs officials received kickbacks.

In interviews, Justice Department officials declined to confirm or deny the existence of the investigations. “If anyone has information regarding corruption within the Customs Service, we would certainly be interested in receiving that information,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Flanagan in Los Angeles, who is overseeing some of the investigations.

Customs officials declined to comment on the investigations. They also defended their low seizure rates and the “facilitation program” that since the late 1980s has allowed increasing numbers of trucks and cargo containers to go uninspected at the border.

Lou Samenfink, Customs cargo control branch chief in Washington, said he does not know why seizures have fallen off and pointed out that the Customs Service instituted a new and improved random system in October for identifying shipments to be inspected.

“It could just as easily be that (drugs are) not there,” he said. “It could certainly mean that our targeting policy is wrong, or that it’s so effective that the smugglers aren’t using commercial cargo to bring drugs in.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration reports that 244,626 pounds of cocaine were seized nationwide by federal law enforcement agencies in 1993, the most recent year for which statistics are available. And officials estimate that only about 10% of the cocaine smuggled into the country is seized.

Joaquin Legarreta, spokesman for the DEA intelligence center in El Paso, said most cocaine enters the United States across the Mexican border, and most comes through regular ports of entry in commercial trucks and passenger vehicles.

In 1986, Customs began a “facilitation” policy to speed up the shipment of cargo from Canada, and the program was expanded to the Mexican border in recent years.

As part of this policy, “low-risk” U.S. importers are allowed to ship commodities from a Mexican manufacturer virtually without inspection, after passing a rigorous background check. Under the so-called “line release” program, some importers go months without having their shipments inspected.

Former Customs Commissioner William Von Raab, who helped establish the program on the Canadian border, said he was shocked when it later was used on the Mexico border.

“It’s terrible. (This) was developed to be used at a border with the highest level of integrity and lowest level of risk,” Von Raab said. “I certainly would never have deployed it at the Mexican border.”

The San Diego district has the lowest inspection rate for commercial trucks, records show. Only 3.7% of the laden trucks are inspected at Otay Mesa, Calexico and Tecate in California and Andrade in Arizona, compared to an average rate of 11.4% along the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

“Obviously, we’re in an area of international trade,” said Rex Applegate, port director of the San Diego district. “We’re not in a situation where we can just stop traffic for the sake of narcotics risk. . . . We examined 3% of all the laden trucks that crossed. That is a lot of trucks. That is a lot of intrusion.”

Sources said inspections are conducted randomly, once every 500 to 2,500 entries, and certain shipments are targeted based on intelligence information.

The facilitation program has resulted in increased truck traffic all along the border, especially last year when records show that laden trucks increased 51% and empty trucks increased 38%. In anticipation of the North American Free Trade Agreement a year ago, U.S. and foreign investors opened new manufacturing plants on the Mexican side of the border, triggering an increase in cargo shipments to this country.

Numerous inspectors and agents have told The Times they believe that the facilitation policy has provided narcotics smugglers with an easy way of bringing tons of cocaine into the United States.

“The smugglers know our system as well or better than us,” said Jay Erdmann, an inspector for 25 years who is retiring next month. “Why should they smuggle the dope through the desert when they can use line release?”

San Diego port Director Applegate said the importing and drug targeting procedures are “very sophisticated.”

“Quite frankly, the line inspector is not aware of this,” Applegate said. “These guys are like platoon sergeants questioning the war strategy.”

But he also said inspectors have a responsibility to target vehicles, based on behavioral analysis of the drivers.

“This risk assessment . . . depends a lot on the inspector’s own knowledge,” Applegate said.

A Dec. 13 document entitled “1994 Port Tracking Report” said Customs concentrates its drug enforcement efforts on shipments from 16 “high-risk” countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The report said that, although most “high-risk” containers pass through the Mexican border, “substantially less” cocaine was seized there last year than the previous year.

Nationwide, customs inspectors and agents seized 62,850 pounds of cocaine from commercial land, air and sea haulers last year--only 2,000 pounds less than in 1993.

But along the Southwest border, 1,765 pounds was confiscated in 1994--all at Calexico--compared to 7,708 pounds in 1993 and 234 pounds in 1992 when truck traffic was lighter. Customs statistics show there was a similar decline in marijuana seizures, from 17,736 pounds in 1993 to 9,459 pounds last year.

Officials were unable to provide statistics for cocaine seizures in previous years along the entire border.

At the Otay Mesa commercial port--third largest on the border and located seven miles east of San Diego--there were no cocaine seizures in the past three years. There also were no seizures during the period at El Paso, the second largest commercial border crossing.

Laredo, Tex., the biggest commercial port, had no cocaine seizures last year. Inspectors there found 5,027 pounds of the drug in 1993 and none in 1992.

Meanwhile, Customs officials have two new proposals to make it easier for airplane and auto travelers, not just trucks, to enter the United States, The Times has learned.

One plan under study, called Airport 2000, would require airline employees to input the names of passport holders into Customs computers.

Customs inspectors would then check the names for criminal records or ties to drug smuggling. If the name used by the traveler does not arouse suspicion, he would be allowed to leave the airport without having to go through Customs inspection.

“Airport 2000 is a concept developed here and is passenger oriented,” said Dennis Shimkoski, a Customs Service spokesman in Washington.

A plan being studied in San Diego would make optional the now-mandatory license plate check of every vehicle entering this country from Mexico. Like Airport 2000, the plan was conceived to cut costs and ease entry into the United States.

Computer checks of license plates have led to the seizure of hundreds of stolen vehicles and thousands of pounds of drugs. The computer checks also tell an inspector if the vehicle is suspected of being used in smuggling and if the driver has a criminal record.

Applegate dismissed complaints from inspectors and Customs agents that the plan signals a retreat from the drug war and invites corruption in the ranks of inspectors.

“The issue is very simple. Our land border traffic is increasing, and our budget is not,” Applegate said. “There would be a certain number of inspectors who would view this as the grossest sellout in Customs history. (But) how much is it costing the Customs Service to input all this data and what are we getting for it?”

Von Raab, the former Customs commissioner, said he believes that the proposals will weaken enforcement efforts. “I have always seen Customs as a regulatory agency to guard borders and collect tariffs,” he said.

Customs inspectors and agents have complained for years about what they call a loophole in the facilitation program. They alleged in interviews that drug rings are paying unscrupulous truck drivers and trucking companies to smuggle cocaine and other drugs--but Customs officials do not subject drivers and trucking companies to the same background checks as importers and manufacturers.

A veteran investigator who has worked on several high-profile drug cases in San Diego said that “you can have the biggest drug dealer in Mexico drive a truck through the compound . . . and the (line-release program’s) computer would never tell you who he was, even if he used his real name.”

“That’s correct,” said Barry Fleming, who supervises the line release program in San Diego. “Right now, I have to agree with the inspectors. (The problem is) the carriers. How do we operate in the unknown where we don’t know the risk of the driver, the tractor (truck) or the trucking company?”

When asked why there were no cocaine seizures at the Otay Mesa commercial port between 1992 and 1994, Fleming said:

“Is it (because of faulty) targeting? Probably it is. We don’t have enough intelligence.”

Carolyn Goding, president of the San Diego Brokers Assn., agreed that there is “nothing to stop an unscrupulous driver from throwing some cocaine underneath the seat.” However, she said the program “is working well for the honest importer by helping facilitate the movement of cargo.”

Said Shimkoski of the Customs Service: “The program has made the shipment of goods from Mexico quicker and more efficient. You don’t have trucks backed up in Mexico for miles. Line release keeps Wal-Mart and Kmart happy.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Changing Customs

Since a program to speed up the flow of goods at Mexican border crossings was launched in the late 1980s, shipments at these points has risen dramatically. The rate of inspections and drug seizures plunged last year. Under the system, importers who pass a background check for any history of smuggling are granted special treatment. Their truck drivers carry manifest sheets with authorizations built into bar codes similar to those on grocery items, and their loads are inspected only infrequently.

PORT OF ENTRY: Laredo, Tex. % OF INCREASE IN SHIPMENTS, ‘93-’94: 29% % OF CHANGE IN INSPECTIONS, ‘93-’94: -21% POUNDS OF COCAINE SEIZED, 1994: 0 POUNDS OF COCAINE SEIZED, 1993: 5,027

PORT OF ENTRY: El Paso % OF INCREASE IN SHIPMENTS, ‘93-’94: 14% % OF CHANGE IN INSPECTIONS, ‘93-’94: 62% POUNDS OF COCAINE SEIZED, 1994: 0 POUNDS OF COCAINE SEIZED, 1993: 0

PORT OF ENTRY: Nogales, Ariz. % OF INCREASE IN SHIPMENTS, ‘93-’94: 0.9% % OF CHANGE IN INSPECTIONS, ‘93-’94: -21% POUNDS OF COCAINE SEIZED, 1994: 0 POUNDS OF COCAINE SEIZED, 1993: 1,610

PORT OF ENTRY: San Diego* % OF INCREASE IN SHIPMENTS, ‘93-’94: 266% % OF CHANGE IN INSPECTIONS, ‘93-’94: -0.6% POUNDS OF COCAINE SEIZED, 1994: 1,765** POUNDS OF COCAINE SEIZED, 1993: 1,071 * Includes ports of Otay Mesa, Tecate, Calexico and Andrade, Ariz.

** Only cocaine seized at a major commercial port in 1994 was at Calexico.

Source: U.S. Customs