[House Hearing, 106 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
BLACK-TAR HEROIN, METH AND COCAINE CONTINUE TO FLOOD THE UNITED STATES
FROM MEXICO
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE,
DRUG POLICY, AND HUMAN RESOURCES
of the
COMMITTEE ON
GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JUNE 30, 2000
__________
Serial No. 106-228
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house
http://www.house.gov/reform
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
72-582 DTP WASHINGTON : 2001
_______________________________________________________________________
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
Office
Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2250
Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
CONSTANCE A. MORELLA, Maryland TOM LANTOS, California
CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut ROBERT E. WISE, Jr., West Virginia
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida MAJOR R. OWENS, New York
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
STEPHEN HORN, California PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania
JOHN L. MICA, Florida PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii
THOMAS M. DAVIS, Virginia CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York
DAVID M. McINTOSH, Indiana ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Washington,
MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana DC
JOE SCARBOROUGH, Florida CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania
STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
MARSHALL ``MARK'' SANFORD, South DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio
Carolina ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois
BOB BARR, Georgia DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois
DAN MILLER, Florida JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts
ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas JIM TURNER, Texas
LEE TERRY, Nebraska THOMAS H. ALLEN, Maine
JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois HAROLD E. FORD, Jr., Tennessee
GREG WALDEN, Oregon JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
DOUG OSE, California ------
PAUL RYAN, Wisconsin BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
HELEN CHENOWETH-HAGE, Idaho (Independent)
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
Kevin Binger, Staff Director
Daniel R. Moll, Deputy Staff Director
David A. Kass, Deputy Counsel and Parliamentarian
Robert A. Briggs, Clerk
Phil Schiliro, Minority Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources
JOHN L. MICA, Florida, Chairman
BOB BARR, Georgia PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio
MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois
STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts
ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas JIM TURNER, Texas
DOUG OSE, California JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
Ex Officio
DAN BURTON, Indiana HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
Sharon Pinkerton, Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Carson Nightwine, Professional Staff Member
Ryan McKee, Clerk
Sarah Despres, Minority Counsel
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on June 30, 2000.................................... 1
Statement of:
Brooks, Chief Fabienne, criminal investigations division,
King County Sheriff's Department, Seattle, WA; and Mario
Medina, family victim, Chimayo, NM......................... 63
Furgeson, Judge W. Royal, Jr., U.S. District Court, Western
District of Texas; Joseph D. Keefe, Special Agent in
Charge, Special Operations Division, Drug Enforcement
Administration; Ed Logan, Special Agent in Charge, San
Diego, U.S. Customs Service; and Luis E. Barker, Chief
Border Patrol Agent, El Paso Sector, U.S. Border Patrol,
INS........................................................ 12
Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:
Barker, Luis E., Chief Border Patrol Agent, El Paso Sector,
U.S. Border Patrol, INS, prepared statement of............. 44
Brooks, Chief Fabienne, criminal investigations division,
King County Sheriff's Department, Seattle, WA, prepared
statement of............................................... 66
Furgeson, Judge W. Royal, Jr., U.S. District Court, Western
District of Texas, prepared statement of................... 14
Keefe, Joseph D., Special Agent in Charge, Special Operations
Division, Drug Enforcement Administration, prepared
statement of............................................... 24
Logan, Ed, Special Agent in Charge, San Diego, U.S. Customs
Service, prepared statement of............................. 33
Medina, Mario, family victim, Chimayo, NM, prepared statement
of......................................................... 79
Mica, Hon. John L., a Representative in Congress from the
State of Florida, prepared statement of.................... 7
BLACK-TAR HEROIN, METH AND COCAINE CONTINUE TO FLOOD THE UNITED STATES
FROM MEXICO
----------
FRIDAY, JUNE 30, 2000
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and
Human Resources,
Committee on Government Reform,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:38 a.m., in
room 2247, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. John L. Mica
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Mica and Kucinich.
Staff present: Sharon Pinkerton, staff director and chief
counsel; Charley Diaz, congressional fellow; Carson Nightwine,
professional staff member; Ryan McKee, clerk; Jason Snyder and
Lauren Perny, interns; Sarah Despres, minority counsel; and
Early Green, assistant minority clerk.
Mr. Mica. Good morning. I would like to welcome you to this
morning's hearing of the Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and
Human Resources Subcommittee.
We are going to go ahead and begin. I know Members had a
very long night. It was close to 2 a.m. Other Members have
indicated they are coming, but because the session has been
finished and the recess begun I am going to go ahead and start
the hearing with the witnesses and hopefully be joined by some
of the Members, who have had very little sleep but do plan to
be with us.
The order of business first is opening statements--I will
start with mine and will yield to others, and we will leave the
record open for a period of 2 weeks for additional comments,
materials, or information to be submitted for the record.
Without objection, so ordered.
This morning's hearing focuses on black-tar heroin,
methamphetamine, cocaine, and the deluge of illegal narcotics
that continue to flood across our southern borders into the
United States from Mexico.
Despite Congress' effort, international drug trafficking
remains a growing threat to our national security.
Unfortunately, Mexico's role as a drug gateway to the United
States continues to dramatically expand.
As Ambassador Davidow, our United States Ambassador to
Mexico, recently said, ``The fact is the headquarters of drug
trafficking is in Mexico.'' I think that comment, which was
somewhat controversial, but, nonetheless, very candid and
accurate, speaks for the situation we find ourselves in today.
Mexico is the headquarters of drug trafficking.
Today, no country in the world possesses a more immediate
drug threat to the United States than Mexico. More than 60
percent of the cocaine on America's streets transit through our
border with Mexico. Our Drug Enforcement Agency reports that
Mexican black-tar and other heroin seizures skyrocketed by more
than 20 percent in just 1 year, an outstanding increase that is
just absolutely remarkable that in 1 year we would have a 20
percent increase.
The volume of methamphetamine, narcotics, and precursor
chemicals from Mexico has also exploded, causing chaos and
crime from rural America to urban centers, and I can testify to
that. We have held hearings practically from sea to shining
sea--California, Louisiana, Texas. I just came back. In the
heartland of America, where three of our States meet--South
Dakota, Iowa, the heartland of America, Nebraska--in Sioux
City, IA, Monday morning we held a hearing with absolutely
incredible testimony that methamphetamines are at epidemic
levels and that rural America--again, the heartland of
America--mostly the methamphetamine, the actual hard drug and
those dealing in it, were Mexican drug lords and criminals
involved in this activity, including many illegal aliens who
have crossed our borders involved in this trafficking and
death.
We heard stories in California that absolutely chill your
spine of dozens and dozens, hundreds of families devastated by
methamphetamine, and the testimony we heard of one particular
case of child abuse, where both the parents on methamphetamine
had tortured the child and then finished it off by boiling it
to death, as the ravage of what we are seeing from this
methamphetamine, and most of it is coming across our borders
from Mexico. Again, we are hearing it over and over as we do
our national field hearings and hearings here in Washington.
Sadly, also our Mexican-United States border has become the
stage for violence, as well as drug trafficking. Mexican crime
organizations use illegal immigrants and migrant workers to
smuggle heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and other illegal
narcotics, disrupting ranches and communities along the border,
and, as I said, even into the heartland of our Nation.
Mexican drug lords are so emboldened they have even offered
bounties for United States agents.
The National Drug Intelligence Center's threat assessment
reports that the average size of Mexican heroin shipments is
increasing and that South American heroin traffickers are
increasingly smuggling Colombian heroin into the United States
through Mexico. It is not bad enough that they have increased
production some 20 percent in 1 year, and that is evidenced by
the seizures that leaped that period, but also heroin that is
now being grown in Colombia, produced in Colombia, is
transiting at unprecedented quantities through Mexico, finding
its way to our streets and communities.
Again, these drugs end up in our schools, in our
businesses, and homes throughout the country, giving us a
problem of unbelievable magnitude.
While Congress has poured substantial moneys into the
southwest border initiatives to combat heroin trafficking, in 1
year seizures of heroin in this area increased from 52 events
and 103.8 kilograms seized in 1997 to 80 events and 145.9
kilograms in 1998. The surge of high, pure, and cheap heroin is
now threatening a growing number of people in the United
States, and particularly we found and most alarmingly we found
it is the young people of this country that are becoming the
victims.
The University of Michigan has reported that the use of
heroin by 12 to 17-year-olds has doubled over the last 7 years.
That same study indicated that 83,160 eighth graders--eighth
graders, mind you--have tried heroin.
The most recent estimate of the domestic hard-core heroin
addict population in the United States is 980,000 people, and
we have communities where we conducted hearings, like
Baltimore, that now have somewhere in the neighborhood of
80,000 heroin and drug addicts, according to one of the city
councilwomen there. The number is one in eight individuals in
Baltimore is a narcotics addict. Of course, we found that some
of that is due to their liberal policy. We held a hearing there
on, I think, Monday. On Thursday, thank God, the mayor fired
the police chief who testified before us in a lackadaisical
attitude toward enforcement, and Mayor O'Malley hopefully is
going to help, and I am pledged to work with the minority,
particularly Mr. Cummings from Baltimore, to turn that
community around.
Since the early 1990's, heroin use has increased
dramatically, moving from big cities--and at one time heroin
use was an urban problem--but now we see it affecting our
smaller towns and dramatic increases in our rural areas. This
is across the entire country now. No one has escaped the
ravages of what we are seeing.
As we will hear from one of our witnesses today, heroin, in
particular, continues to have the largest impact of all illicit
drugs used in the Seattle area in terms of drug-related
deaths--also in emergency department episodes and in criminal
involvement.
Heroin overdoses and deaths continue to plague many of our
metropolitan areas, also our suburbs. Again, I come from
central Florida and represent a suburb area, and we have had
young people dying in unprecedented numbers from heroin
overdoses, and even our most recent statistics are more grim
than the year before with the heroin deaths.
In Oregon, the State medical examiner's office reports an
average of five people a week died of heroin-related causes in
the first 6 months of 1999.
Our subcommittee continues to receive disturbing testimony
that Mexican crime organizations are attempting to market their
heroin and methamphetamine in new areas. We heard testimony of
distinct marketing programs by these Mexican drug traffickers,
again even in the rural heartland in America, on Monday.
Analysts continue to examine the reason behind the surge in
production, but say new, highly potent forms of heroin from
drug cartels in Colombia and Mexico have been key to attracting
new users, and this is unbelievable, but their new target are
young women, girls. Young females are, indeed, their new
target. These young people typically prefer to sniff or smoke
their drugs rather than inject them. Now, with the more-potent
heroin that is available, this high purity and deadly heroin,
it is available as a powder in bags or gel capsules and users
can get high without injecting. That has made this insidious
drug a more seductive and palatable narcotic to young teenage
girls and our youth.
One of our witnesses today lost a sister to black-tar
heroin. She was 1 of 85 people in Chimayo, NM, who died
tragically in the past few years from ingesting this high-
potency heroin.
Along with the increased availability has become a decrease
in the price and an increase in purity. A milligram dose of 3.6
percent pure heroin cost about $3.90, 20 years ago, according
to DEA. Now the average milligram is 41.6 percent pure and
costs only $1.
DEA has recently seized Colombian heroin that was 98
percent pure, and that is about as deadly as it gets.
Sadly, heroin isn't the only deadly drug coming across the
border. Three months ago I conducted two field hearings in
California where the predominant drug problem was
methamphetamine coming up from Mexico along the I-4, the major
artery corridor, to Sacramento.
In San Diego, our subcommittee heard testimony that 43
percent of all individuals arrested in San Diego County were
under the influence of methamphetamine, 43 percent. As I have
said, the problem also is on the rampage in mid America.
The field hearing that I cited in Sioux City, IA, again
illustrated the breadth and depth of this problem. They call it
``Mexican meth,'' and it is ravaging right now the midwest.
Meth lab seizures in Iowa have increased from just 8 in
1995 to over 500 last year. That is the testimony that we had.
And I think that that was Federal seizures. Maybe the States I
think and locals had another 300 seizures.
At our recent Dallas hearing, DEA testified that in
Oklahoma, alone, almost 1,000 labs were busted in 1999. In
every one of those hearings I asked them where this garbage was
coming from, where is this meth or the precursor chemicals and
who is dealing, and every time the path leads back across the
border to Mexico.
Nationwide, DEA seized 218 illegal labs in 1993. Last year,
DEA seized over 1,900. And if you count all the meth labs
seized by State, local, and Federal officials nationwide, the
number is over 6,400.
Mexico is also the transportation corridor for 60 percent
of the cocaine coming into this country. While the Mexicans
don't produce any cocaine and they do produce this new surge of
black-tar heroin that we have described--it is an incredible
increase we have seen in a 1-year period--they are not
producers of coke, the base for cocaine. However, again, Mexico
is the major transit area for cocaine coming into this country.
I am very concerned to learn this week that Mexican
seizures of cocaine have again dropped. It shows again the lack
of will, lack of participation, lack of commitment and thumbing
their nose at the United States in this problem that Mexican
officials again are reporting a drop in seizures of cocaine in
that country.
Given what we know has been almost a threefold increase in
coca production over the past few years, this drop in seizures
is a warning signal to me of very lax enforcement on their side
of the border.
Finally, the criminal organizations are more frequently
using illegal immigrants to carry drugs across the border, and
the number of illegal immigrants we are hearing that are
involved in narcotics trafficking is astounding--again, even in
Iowa. We conducted a hearing north of Atlanta, GA, with the
vice chairman of the subcommittee some months ago and found an
incredible number of illegal aliens in rural Georgia, and not
much is being done to remove these people. We look at the
resources they spent sending one Cuban boy back, and we can't
get drug dealers and traffickers who are here illegally to
begin with off our streets and sent back. Something is wrong.
Now we read of ranchers who are patrolling their land with
dogs and guns, and some ranchers resorting to being vigilantes
in order to restore order along our borders. And the violence
isn't occurring just on our side of the border. Mexican
citizens right now are paying an incredible price for the drug
trade that flourishes in their country. I have received reports
that the states of Baja and the Yucatan Peninsula are also
suffering from unprecedented numbers of murders and violence.
What has been traditionally corruption in Mexico is now turning
to a combination of corruption and incredible violence. In the
state of Baja, they have even lined up people and gunned them
down en masse, and we have record numbers of deaths in the
Tijuana/Baja Peninsula area. They have killed, I believe, the
second police chief there, and lawlessness prevails in that
state that has now become a narco-terrorist province within
Mexico.
Just this April an ally of the United States, Mr. Jose
Patino and his colleagues working to indict drug traffickers,
were abducted, tortured, and executed as they drove from San
Diego to Tijuana.
While the administration has suggested that a strong
bilateral approach to law enforcement with Mexico is necessary
to achieving our mutual interests and controlling our border
and protecting our citizens, very little has, in fact, been
done to translate these words into action. Mexicans again
continue to thumb their nose at even the basic request that the
entire House of Representatives passed several years ago asking
for extradition of Mexican drug dealers, and to date not one
Mexican major drug kingpin has been extradited to the United
States. Every one of our requests, in fact, that we have made
through resolutions of the House have been ignored. In fact,
some reports indicate that the Mexican Attorney General's
Office has done little to strike a blow against the known
traffickers in Mexico.
I am greatly concerned that the vetted units that we have
invested in cannot operate due to a lack of trust. They have
made even a farce out of vetted units that we have attempted to
establish.
Where are the signs of cooperation? In each of the
categories of extradition, including also, as I said, other
things that have been requested, including a maritime agreement
and anti-corruption measures, we have seen almost no or little
progress. The only time we get any progress is close to
certification when they think that there is some threat, but,
unfortunately, they bought all the lobbying and P.R. resources
they can to thwart the intent of our certification law, made a
mockery of even that.
Today, given the havoc that is being wreaked on our Nation,
it is even more imperative that we critically examine the
results of past efforts and develop and implement sound plans
and strategic initiatives for the future. We should be ahead of
the curve knowing at all times that we are making progress and
not losing ground.
My goodness, last night the House of Representatives did
pass an emergency supplemental legislation. We know the source
and route area that this administration has helped develop
through its inane policy with Colombia. The source and problem
is Colombia for a lot of the drugs that are produced. Mexico is
now joining the production ranks in significant quantities. But
I think that the action last night will provide us with the
resources that we need to move forward.
We were successful with initiatives that Mr. Hastert helped
initiate, and the predecessor to this subcommittee helped
initiate in Peru and Bolivia, and those have dramatically
increased the production of cocaine in those countries, and I
think that we will have a similar effect when the bill is well
balanced to also provide resources to other areas. But, again,
we must have an ally in this whole effort, and Mexico must be
part of the picture since it is the biggest trafficker in
illegal narcotics in the world right now.
I am not convinced that Mexico has done enough, as you can
obviously ascertain, to stem the rising tide of drug
exportation across the border into this country.
Just last month, seven U.S. court justices who represent
the five districts that currently handle 26 percent of all
criminal case filings in the southwest border courts came to
Capitol Hill to tell Congress about the mounting crisis in
their courts. These jurists reported that drug prosecutions in
that area had doubled between 1994 and 1998, while immigration
prosecutions increased five-fold.
As a Nation, we must face certain irrefutable facts.
Increasing the amount of illegal drugs, particularly heroin,
coming from or through Mexico, in fact, is ending up on our
streets. Heroin and those who traffic in it spread and finance
gang violence, crime, destroy young lives, and undermine our
communities and our very quality of life.
The question remains how can we best stop what is going on,
how can we best bring the situation under control, and that is
why we are here today, to hear from witnesses who are involved
directly on the front lines of this effort.
I am pleased to have before us two panels this morning, and
we will have additional statements by Members submitted to the
record. Again, we will leave the record open for a period of 2
weeks.
[The prepared statement of Hon. John L. Mica follow:]
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Mr. Mica. This morning, as we proceed, we have two witness
panels. Let me introduce the first panel.
The first panel is Judge W. Royal Furgeson, Jr., the U.S.
District Court, Western District of Texas; Mr. Joseph D. Keefe,
who is a Special Agent in Charge of Special Operations Division
of the Drug Enforcement Administration; Mr. Ed Logan, who is a
Special Agent in Charge, San Diego, of the U.S. Customs
Service; and Mr. Luis E. Barker is a Chief Border Patrol Agent
in El Paso sector of the U.S. Border Patrol under INS.
We are pleased to welcome these witnesses to our
subcommittee this morning.
Let me say, as we proceed, this is an investigations and
oversight subcommittee of the full Government Reform Committee
of the House of Representatives. In that regard, we do swear in
all our witnesses, which we will do in just a moment.
Also, if you have any lengthy statement, any statement for
the subcommittee, oral presentation beyond 5 minutes, I ask
that you request that it be submitted to the record and will be
done so by unanimous consent. Also, any additional data,
background that you would like to be made part of the record,
if you request through the Chair that also will be added to the
proceedings and your statement today.
With that, if you could please rise and be sworn.
Raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Mica. This was answered in the affirmative. We'll let
the record reflect that.
Welcome this morning. I think first we'll turn to Judge W.
Royal Furgeson, Jr., who is the U.S. district court, western
district of Texas.
Welcome, sir. You are recognized.
STATEMENTS OF JUDGE W. ROYAL FURGESON, JR., U.S. DISTRICT
COURT, WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS; JOSEPH D. KEEFE, SPECIAL
AGENT IN CHARGE, SPECIAL OPERATIONS DIVISION, DRUG ENFORCEMENT
ADMINISTRATION; ED LOGAN, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, SAN DIEGO,
U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE; AND LUIS E. BARKER, CHIEF BORDER PATROL
AGENT, EL PASO SECTOR, U.S. BORDER PATROL, INS
Judge Furgeson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. My name
is Royal Furgeson, and I am a U.S. district judge for the
western district of Texas. I was one of the judges who came
last month to Congress to talk with the Congress about the
impact of the southwestern border initiative on the Federal
courts on the border.
As you well mentioned in your report, the five judicial
districts on the border are now handling 26 percent of all
criminal filings in the U.S. courts. That is basically 5
percent of the Federal courts handling 26 percent of the
criminal filings.
If the trend continues, we estimate that this 5 percent may
be handling as much as a third of all criminal filings within
several years.
Let me give you just a brief indication of the impact your
initiative has had on my court. By the way, I do have a written
statement that I would request be put in the record.
Mr. Mica. Without objection, your entire statement will be
made part of the record.
Please proceed.
Judge Furgeson. Thank you, sir.
I am the presiding judge over the Pecos Division of the
Western District of Texas. It is one of seven divisions in the
Western District. Three of our divisions are on the border--El
Paso, Del Rio, and Pecos. The Pecos Division covers 430 miles
of border with Mexico. It includes the Big Bend National Park,
which is the fourth largest national park in the 48 States, the
lower 48.
In 1995, the first year that I presided over the criminal
docket of the Pecos division, there were 45 criminal cases
filed. That is about the time that the southwest border
initiative began. Since the start of the southwest border
initiative, my docket has grown considerably. Last year, 1999,
there were 386 criminal cases filed in the Pecos division. That
is an 800 percent increase in 4 years.
In the first 5 months of this year, 252 criminal cases have
been filed in the Pecos division. That comes to 50 cases a
month. I believe there will be over 600 cases filed in the
Pecos division this year. That will be a 55 percent increase in
criminal filings over last year.
Last year, I and the two judges to my west who handle El
Paso, TX, presided over an average, among the three of us, of
about 750 cases. The average criminal case filings for district
judges last year in America was 74. Right now our three courts
are handling something like 10 times the number of average
filings for judges across the United States.
I think the goal of the border initiative was to stop drug
smuggling and drug trafficking. I think that goal is well
underway. I don't know if these gentlemen to my left believe
they have met the goal yet, but they are doing an impressive
job of interdicting drug smuggling, and those drug smuggling
cases are then coming into our courts in record number.
What we have been trying to tell the Congress, Mr.
Chairman, and what we told the Congress when we came last
month, was that this increase in law enforcement on the border
is having an enormous impact on the judiciary on the border,
and we are really under an incredible stress attempting to
handle the cases that are coming into our courts.
Our goal is to handle them and handle them as effectively
and efficiently as we can, but with the enormous addition of
cases in our courts, we are under enormous strain.
We have asked for additional funding for the courts on the
border. That is a part of our request for the total budget of
the judiciary this year, and we have also asked for new
judgeships and other kinds of support, and we have been very
gratified by the response we have received.
Thank you, sir.
Mr. Mica. Thank you, Judge Furgeson.
[The prepared statement of Judge Furgeson follows:]
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Mr. Mica. We'll suspend questions until we have heard from
all of the witnesses on this panel.
We will now hear from Joseph D. Keefe, and he is the
special agent in charge of special operations division of DEA,
our Drug Enforcement Agency.
Welcome, sir. You are recognized.
Mr. Keefe. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity to
appear before the subcommittee today to discuss the issue of
drug trafficking along the southwest border.
My submitted testimony will provide you with objective
assessment of the law enforcement issues surrounding the drug
threat posed by international drug trafficking organizations.
My overall remarks today will be limited to the Mexican heroin
trade and our response to this threat.
The organized crime syndicates in Mexico have grown
significantly more powerful and wealthy over the last 6 years.
Their position in the cocaine trade has been significantly
enhanced by the Colombians payment in cocaine for providing
transportation services for drug lords. These trafficking
organizations have accrued billions of dollars in drug profits
annually and now rival their Colombian counterparts in power,
wealth, and influence.
The Mexican organized crime syndicates are not satisfied
with their billions in cocaine profits. They also seek profits
in the heroin trade. Mexican heroin has become the second-
largest source used in the United States.
Organized crime syndicates based in Mexico now dominate the
marketplace in the west and hold a substantial share of the
midwest market and are actively pursuing markets on the East
Coast. Historically, traffickers from Mexico use their
proximity and access to the southwest border to their
advantage. After safely smuggling heroin across the border,
these organizations routinely stockpile the heroin in locations
such as San Diego and Los Angeles, CA. The heroin is
subsequently distributed in pound quantities throughout the
United States.
By keeping quantities small, traffickers minimize the risk
of losing significant quantities of product to U.S. law
enforcement. In addition, once the heroin reaches the United
States, these traffickers rely upon well-entrenched drug
smuggling and distribution networks to distribute their heroin.
The popularity of black-tar heroin has increased as its
purity has soared. Traditionally, Mexican heroin, such as
Mexican brown or black-tar heroin, was recognized as inferior
and less pure grade of heroin; however, recent investigations
such as Operation Tar Pit have revealed purity levels of black-
tar heroin as high as 84 percent, explaining its increased
popularity.
Heroin abuse is not restricted to the inner city poor or
the Hollywood elite. Middle class teenagers and young adults in
places like Orlando, FL; Plano, TX; and Rio Arriba County, NM
have fallen prey to heroin addiction as a consequence of their
experimentation with high purity dosages of this dangerous
narcotic. Tragically, Rio Arriba County, NM, had the highest
per capita heroin overdose rate in America. Between 1995 and
1998, the small town of Chimayo, located in Rio Arriba County,
suffered over 85 deaths attributed to high-purity black-tar
heroin.
In order to combat drug production and trafficking networks
operating along the southwest border, DEA, in concert with
other Federal agencies, established the southwest border
initiative, an integrated, coordinated law enforcement effort
designed to attack the command and control structure of
organized criminal operations associated with these criminal
organizations.
The most effective way to dismantle these drug traffic
organizations is through multi-agency cooperative
investigation. The special operations division enhances
agencies' ability to dismantle these organizations. The special
operations division is a joint national coordinating and
support entity comprised of agents, analysts, and prosecutors
of the Department of Justice, U.S. Customs, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, Drug Enforcement Agency, and Internal Revenue
Service. Its mission is to coordinate and support regional and
national criminal investigations and prosecutions against drug
trafficking organizations that threaten our Nation.
These cooperative investigations have yielded tremendous
results, as evidenced by the success of Operation Impunity,
Operation Green Air, and most recently Operation Tar Pit.
Operation Tar Pit was a year-long investigation which
resulted in a complete disruption and dismantling of the
largest black-tar heroin organization operating in the United
States to date. The operation culminated in the arrests of over
225 suspects and the seizure of 64 pounds of black-tar heroin.
The investigation revealed that this organization was
responsible for smuggling and distributing approximately 80 to
100 pounds of black-tar heroin a month into the United States.
In addition, Operation Tar Pit proved that Mexican traffickers
were, in fact, attempting to expand their traditional western
markets into the more-lucrative high purity white heroin market
in the eastern part of the Nation currently controlled by
Colombian-based traffickers.
This criminal organization established heroin drug
trafficking sales as far west as Hawaii and as far east as New
Jersey.
Operation Tar Pit also revealed this organization's
ruthlessness and total disregard for human life. During the
investigation it was learned that these criminals targeted
methadone clinics and preyed on heroin addicts who were seeking
help for their heroin addiction. Their callous marketing
efforts were responsible for driving recovering addicts back
into the cycle of heroin use.
Drug trafficking organizations operating along the
southwest border continue to be one of the greatest threats to
communities across the Nation. The DEA is deeply committed in
our efforts to identify, target, arrest, and incapacitate the
leadership of these criminal drug trafficking organizations.
Cooperative investigations such as Operation Tar Pit serve
to send a strong message to all drug traffickers that the U.S.
law enforcement community will not sit idle as these criminal
organizations threaten the welfare of our citizens and the
security of our towns and cities.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear
before your subcommittee. I will be happy to answer questions
at the right time, sir.
We also have a short video to show you at some point.
Mr. Mica. How long is the video?
Mr. Keefe. Just about a minute, sir.
Mr. Mica. Why don't we just go ahead and show that now at
the end of your testimony, if you are ready.
Mr. Keefe. Mr. Chairman, this video shows an example of how
they were moving--in Operation Tar Pit, how the traffickers
were moving pounds of black-tar heroin within the United
States.
An example here is a boom box often used by a typical
Mexican female, often juvenile, would often carry a boom box on
a bus and travel from Los Angeles, CA, for example, to
Columbus, OH.
The other example is a rice cooker, which was shipped by
mail, which also contained approximately about a pound of
black-tar heroin which would be shipped from the West Coast to
whichever city it was going to, and they did this continuously
throughout this investigation.
[Videotape presentation.]
Mr. Keefe. You can see the black-tar heroin contained in
the packets.
Mr. Mica. In our hearing on Monday on Sioux City, IA, local
enforcement officials described how they set up an auto parts
business and were shipping--I think it was meth in this case--
into the Sioux City area, the tri-county area, tri-State area
up there, and so sophisticated that they actually created this
bogus business. When they went after them the business
evaporated. I think that was also tied to an operation in
California.
They were setting up false businesses and then shipping the
stuff in through that, similar fashion.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Keefe follows:]
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Mr. Mica. We'll turn now to Mr. Ed Logan, special agent in
charge in San Diego, U.S. Customs Service.
Welcome, sir. You are recognized.
Mr. Logan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the
subcommittee. I am pleased to appear before you today to
discuss the U.S. Customs Service's efforts in protecting the
southwest border.
As the committee is well aware, the Customs Service, along
our border with Mexico, must work in a multidimensional threat
environment. While we have positioned most of our personnel and
resources facing south along the 1,800-mile land border that we
share with Mexico to screen persons, conveyances, and goods
moving north, we also must be watchful on southbound trade and
traffic which may be carrying weapons, undeclared currency,
hazardous materials, controlled technology, stolen cars, or
fugitives from justice leaving the United States.
At the same time, due to our geography, we must also look
west and east, where the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico
provide yet another avenue for drug smugglers long schooled in
the ways of moving narcotics by sea.
We also must be able to look up and monitor our skies,
which became in the 1970's and the 1980's the quickest way for
drugs to enter the country.
Last, all the agencies along the border must be ever
vigilant to the presence of tunnels, which have been created to
move both narcotics and illegal aliens into the United States.
Within California, in my area of operations, in 1999
Customs encountered over 30 million passenger vehicles, 95
million persons, almost a million trucks, thousands of pleasure
craft, and cleared for entry into the United States commerce
over $12 billion of trade only from Mexico.
To meet our threat, we have deployed personnel, technology,
air, and vessels to screen the border environment, whether that
be on land, in the air, or at sea. All of these pose unique
challenges.
Screened from this enormous haystack of people and
conveyances, the Customs Service has seized 192 tons of
marijuana, 5 tons of cocaine, 1,164 pounds of methamphetamine,
and 226 pounds of heroin, most of it black tar, along with
arresting over 4,000 drug smugglers.
In 8 short years, we have witnessed drug seizures rise at
our California ports of entry from 370 in 1991 to over 4,000 in
1998.
As I have previously testified before this committee in
March, last year over 58 percent of all detected drug smuggling
events at United States ports of entry along the Mexican border
occurred in California. While Customs is responsible for
enforcing sections of the U.S. code on behalf of 60 other
Federal agencies and routinely conducts a wide variety of
investigative activity, Commissioner Kelly has clearly stated
that interdicting narcotics and dismantling drug smuggling
organizations is our highest priority.
The windows of opportunity for would-be drug smugglers are
staggering, and the number climbs each year as the benefits of
NAFTA continue to increase trade with our southern neighbor,
which rose 115 percent in California from fiscal year 1994 to
1999.
Our efforts to deal with our ever-increasing work load may
be characterized as follows: continuous coordination with
Federal, State, and local resources through coalition law
enforcement; the utilization of technology; effective
intelligence gathering and sharing; and proactive investigative
operations targeted drug smuggling organizations.
The increased availability of x-ray systems and dedicated
intelligence and investigative efforts at our commercial
facilities are already resulting in increased seizures of
narcotics. For example, this fiscal year to date at Otay Mesa
and Tecate there have been 44 significant seizures of marijuana
concealed in trucks, averaging approximately 1,400 pounds each.
This is up from 6 seizures in 1995 that averaged approximately
600 pounds, and 30 the previous year that averaged 960 pounds.
We are seeing a disturbing trend toward the increased use
of commercial trucks, including concealment in false walls and
roofs, as well as commingled in legitimate commerce.
Black-tar heroin, on the other hand, is much more difficult
to detect as it enters the United States from Mexico. While
there are some poly drug smuggling organizations which move
heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine, our recent
experience in intelligence tell us that there are highly
organized Mexican traffickers who specialize in smuggling
black-tar heroin into the United States and distributing it in
communities across the United States. DEA's highly successful
Operation Tar Pit is vivid confirmation.
Heroin couriers by the hundreds move stealthily through the
southwest border, many carrying relatively small amounts
concealed on and in their bodies. Other couriers move it in
larger quantities in vehicles, usually between 15 to 20 pounds,
concealed in specially constructed compartments and modified
car components like manifolds and engine blocks. Often the only
way we can confirm the presence of heroin in vehicles, even
when we have advance intelligence, is to x ray. In many cases
the heroin is so well integrated into the vehicle we have to
partially destroy the car to remove the drugs.
This is why interagency intelligence sharing on drug
smuggling operations and organizations and techniques is so
critical to effective counter-narcotics operations. While
interdicting the drugs at the border is important, our
controlled deliveries and investigative bridge strategy enables
the Customs Service, oftentimes in partnership with DEA, the
FBI, and State and local agencies, to identify the scope of the
smuggling and distributing organizations transiting our border
for heartland, U.S.A., and all other major metropolitan cities.
Those of us who work on the United States-Mexican border
know that it is an environment in which drug smuggling
routinely infiltrates legitimate trade and commerce. The
traffickers and smugglers are experienced, well-financed, often
well-trained, and, sadly, highly effective in their efforts.
In conclusion, we take pride in our law enforcement
coalition as the Customs Service is not alone along the border.
We remain shoulder-to-shoulder with all of the agencies,
Federal and State, who have resources dedicated to this
important effort. I am proud to represent the Customs Service
in providing insights into the hard work being conducted by the
men and women of the Customs Service every day along the
border.
I have a longer statement, Mr. Chairman, and I would
request that it be submitted.
Mr. Mica. Without objection, your entire statement will be
made part of the record. Thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Logan. Thank you, sir.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Logan follows:]
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Mr. Mica. I will now turn to Luis E. Barker. Mr. Barker is
chief of the border patrol, El Paso sector of the U.S. Border
Patrol, INS.
Welcome, sir. You are recognized.
Mr. Barker. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and distinguished
members of the subcommittee. I am Luis Barker, chief patrol
agent of the El Paso sector of the U.S. Border Patrol. I am
pleased to have the opportunity to appear before the
subcommittee today to speak to you about the Border Patrol and
our narcotic enforcement efforts along the southwest border.
The El Paso sector encompasses 125,000 square miles of
territory, including the entire State of New Mexico and two
counties in west Texas. We have 12 Border Patrol stations and 6
permanent Border Patrol checkpoints under our jurisdiction.
Currently, we have approximately 1,000 agents assigned to the
El Paso sector, one of the largest geographical sectors in the
country. The topography of the El Paso sector is quite diverse.
It includes 180 land border miles and 109 river boundary miles.
The El Paso sector agents, like those across the country,
diligently perform their duties every day in an environment
that is becoming more dangerous and threatening because of
alien and narcotics smugglers. Border Patrol agents protect our
national security, are arresting individuals who enter the
country illegally and who may pose a criminal threat to our
communities.
Before 1993, there was no comprehensive unified plan for
controlling this 2,000-mile frontier. The number of Border
Patrol agents was insufficient to get the job done, and those
we had were not provided all the equipment and technology
necessary to do the job. As a result, illegal immigrants and
drug smugglers came across the border with little fear of being
apprehended. The Border Patrol management strategy we developed
to deal with the problems on the southwest border was
comprehensive and multi-year. The strategy is simply a call for
prevention through deterrence--that is, elevating the risk of
apprehension to the point where immigrant and drug traffickers
consider it futile to enter the United States illegally.
That concept first took shape in late 1993 in El Paso with
Operation Hold the Line. The operation was designed to reduce
the alarming increase in illegal entries and crime in the
metropolitan El Paso area. Approximately 400 agents teamed
together on the border for 25 miles. El Paso sector was able to
reduce apprehensions by more than 70 percent and reduced crime
by 15 percent almost overnight. For the first time, this border
community saw an effective integration strategy could make a
difference, as well as improve the quality of life in New
Mexico and west Texas.
These strategies still remain in effect today, although not
without additional challenges. Because of the effectiveness of
Hold the Line in west Texas, areas in southern New Mexico are
now being impacted heavily. Some illegal immigration shift is
now being felt in areas in New Mexico such as Deming, Columbus,
and Lordsburg. These southern New Mexico communities are
experiencing a trend of increasing apprehension and smuggling
activity. In some areas, agents are encountering large groups
of immigrants, as large as 75 to 100. Alien smugglers have
increased their illegal activity and subsequent exploitation of
people who are willing to pay them.
In addition to these challenges, there is also the constant
element of danger for agents who are tasked with the
responsibility of interrupting smuggling episodes. For the
first time, we are seeing a consistent pattern of narcotics
smuggling in southern New Mexico via backpacking and horseback
in the outlying New Mexico areas. The interception of narcotics
loads is a daily occurrence at traffic checkpoints in New
Mexico. This past Sunday, agents working a checkpoint near
Alamogordo seized more than 1 ton of marijuana in a U-Haul
truck bound for Florida. The driver, as it turned out, had an
outstanding warrant from Florida on aggravated charges with a
firearm. This scenario is not uncommon.
Our agents remain vigilant 24 hours a day and now have at
their disposal technology that includes surveillance cameras,
night vision equipment, aircraft, and newly introduced vehicle
barriers designed to prevent drive-through narcotic loads from
entering the United States at specific points along the border.
In the immediate El Paso area, we are also seeing more
ingenuity by those who persist in breaking immigration laws.
Illegal immigrants and drug couriers come in and utilize storm
drainage tunnels, which consists of an entire network of
underground entranceways into the United States. While our
agents are now stepping up surveillance on tunnel networks, it
is a problem that persists.
Drug interdiction remains a top priority for the El Paso
sector agents. In New Mexico, alone, our agents have made 634
seizures this current year. On a national scale since 1993, we
have more than doubled the number of Border Patrol agents to
over 8,600, with the vast majority stationed on the southwest
border. We have increased their effectiveness by providing
state-of-the-art equipment to our agents, such as infrared
scopes, underground sensors, and other force-multiplying
equipment and technology. With congressional support, we are
improving our enforcement infrastructure along the border by
installing fences and anti-drive-through barriers and
constructing all-weather roads to enhance mobile patrolling
efforts.
Although the Border Patrol's primary mission is to enforce
immigration laws of this country, a national drug control
strategy acknowledges the Border Patrol as a primary Federal
interdiction agency along our land border with Canada and
Mexico. Strategically, the more effective the Border Patrol is
at deterring illegal entry of any kind, the more effective are
the counter-drug strategies of the inspection agencies at the
ports of entries and the investigative agencies in the
interior. The Border Patrol specifically focuses on drug
smuggling at our ports of entry.
On March 25, 1996, the INS and DEA signed a memorandum of
understanding which outlines the authorities, responsibilities,
and general procedures for the Border Patrol to follow in its
drug interdiction activities. The Border Patrol also
participates in the INS and U.S. Customs border coordination
initiative. As a result of cooperation and good working
relationship among INS, DEA, and the U.S. Customs Service, drug
investigation efforts and interdictions are on the rise.
Mr. Chairman, the men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol
are proud to be serving their country as they enforce our
Nation's immigration laws. I thank you for allowing me the
opportunity to appear before you today, and I will be happy to
answer any question that you might have.
I have a longer version of my oral comments.
Mr. Mica. Without objection, your entire statement will be
made part of the record, so ordered.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Barker follows:]
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Mr. Mica. I thank each of the witnesses on this first panel
for your testimony.
Let me start with Mr. Keefe. DEA produces heroin signature
identification of drugs and heroin coming into the United
States and can identify pretty accurately where heroin is
coming from; is that correct?
Mr. Keefe. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. In the last report that has been provided to our
subcommittee, it indicated a 20 percent increase in 1 year, and
that is, I think, from 1997, I think it is, to 1998. When will
you produce again another assessment of your signature on
heroin?
Mr. Keefe. I'll have to get you that answer, Mr. Chairman.
I don't know----
Mr. Mica. You don't know?
Mr. Keefe [continuing]. Exactly when it will come out.
Mr. Mica. Is that accurate?
Mr. Keefe. I just understand, sir, that one should be out
in 2 months, approximately.
Mr. Mica. In 2 months?
Mr. Keefe. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. This is a pretty dramatic increase in any kind of
narcotic. In fact, it's a pretty startling increase. I've never
seen anything that dramatic as far as a production level. Have
you?
Mr. Keefe. No, sir. Not with the Mexican heroin. No, sir.
Mr. Mica. And you are saying that also this is a very
deadly heroin; is that correct?
Mr. Keefe. Because of the high purity.
Mr. Mica. And what was the level? You said you've
identified some of this at what percentage of purity?
Mr. Keefe. The highest we saw in Operation Tar Pit was 84
percent.
Mr. Mica. That's 84 percent?
Mr. Keefe. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. And that probably is accounting for the deaths.
We heard the deaths, I think, along the border in Chimayo, that
one New Mexican border town, probably in my community in
Orlando, and other areas. Is the high purity what is killing
them?
Mr. Keefe. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. We are tracing this back without question to
Mexico, also, the black tar?
Mr. Keefe. That's correct, sir. We know it was produced,
grown in Mexico, made into heroin in Mexico, then smuggled
across into the United States.
Mr. Mica. What would you attribute to the dramatic
increase? Is it lack of U.S. enforcement going after this, or
is it laxness on the part of the Mexicans to bring production
under control?
Mr. Keefe. Well, I----
Mr. Mica. I mean, you're increasing your enforcement
efforts. Obviously, something is happening on the other end if
we are getting this significant production.
Mr. Keefe. I think the Mexicans, in the heroin field, sir,
are competing with the Colombians. They have learned from the
Colombians in marketing. They've learned from the Colombians
through dealing with the cocaine.
Mr. Mica. Well, that's the marketers, but I'm talking about
the officials in charge in Mexico. It doesn't appear this is a
priority to go after the production. Would that be correct? And
we're seeing more of this stuff coming in from Mexico, a
dramatic increase.
Now, what is most disturbing, is this week, I received--I
guess, Madruso, the Attorney General, had announced that the
seizures are down of cocaine. That's what he publicly
announced, I think, this past week. Does that confirm what
you've heard?
Mr. Keefe. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. This is Mexican seizures.
Mr. Keefe. Mexican, yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. Now, our heroin seizures are up, right?
Mr. Keefe. Yes.
Mr. Mica. Our cocaine seizures are up?
Mr. Keefe. I believe so. Yes.
Mr. Mica. Yes. And theirs are down. At least their
production is up of heroin.
Mr. Keefe. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. And their seizures of cocaine are down. Do you
think that you're having any less cocaine transiting through
their country?
Mr. Keefe. No, sir.
Mr. Mica. What disturbs me, too, is the marketing that
we've heard. It appears that they are actually marketing black-
tar heroin in the United States; is that----
Mr. Keefe. That's correct, sir.
Mr. Mica. And was it you, Mr. Logan who testified that they
are even targeting methadone clinics? Or was that you?
Mr. Keefe. That was me, sir.
Mr. Mica. This is the first time I've heard that. I've
heard marketing, almost giving out samples to young people for
potential growing the user market, but you're saying they're
even going now after methadone clinics?
Mr. Keefe. They would go into the areas of the methadone
clinics--obviously, the people going there were heroin users at
one time, or whatever--and target those people with, as you
mentioned, free samples, for instance, as they've moved into
new cities throughout the United States.
Mr. Mica. And you said--I think it was you that testified--
just correct me if I am wrong--80 to 100 pounds a month?
Mr. Keefe. Yes.
Mr. Mica. Is that seizures, or just an estimate coming
across?
Mr. Keefe. That's what we estimated this group was moving
for the past year in Operation Tar Pit.
Mr. Mica. Judge Furgeson, you are in the business of
bringing to justice these folks. Are your courts--now, you are
a Federal court officer?
Judge Furgeson. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. Are you prosecuting people who are using small
amounts of narcotics?
Judge Furgeson. We see a wide range, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mica. Tell me, most people think that the courts are
now going after someone who is smoking a marijuana joint or
that is using a small-time user. Is that what you're dealing
with?
Judge Furgeson. That's not the case at all. My first year I
was in El Paso----
Mr. Mica. Describe the majority of cases you are handling,
because a lot of people--in fact, I went to bed last night
watching somebody spiel off about how this is just a treatment
problem, and if we treat these folks everything will be fine. I
want to know if your folks are in that category, that they just
need a little treatment and the problem will go away.
Judge Furgeson. Well, my first year in El Paso I had a 2-
ton cocaine case. It was two semi trucks----
Mr. Mica. Was that for personal use?
Judge Furgeson. No, sir.
Mr. Mica. Alright. [Laughter.]
Judge Furgeson. No, sir. And the defendants were
Colombians. I sit in three different places. El Paso is a very
large cocaine corridor, and I think the great percentage of
cases coming into El Paso are large cocaine shipments.
The Pecos division covers the Sierra Blanca checkpoint,
which is manned by the Border Patrol on I-10, and there we see
heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Not too long ago I had an
11-pound methamphetamine case, which I think is a substantial
amount of methamphetamine.
In the Pecos division, the Big Bend area, I see very large
amounts of marijuana, 1,000-pound, 1,500-pound cases of
marijuana. There are smaller cases, as well, 100 pounds, 200
pounds.
Mr. Mica. Well, smaller cases, again--personal use?
Judge Furgeson. There is no personal use case in my court.
None.
Mr. Mica. So we're not clogging the courts with people who
need treatment and the small-time abusers or addicts?
Judge Furgeson. There are----
Mr. Mica. I don't want to put words in your mouth. Tell me
what you are seeing in your court.
Judge Furgeson. I'm not seeing anything----
Mr. Mica. Because people don't want to be--they tell me
they don't want to be spending money going after people who are
small-time users or an addict who needs treatment. Is that what
the Federal courts are doing? Are you harassing these people
badly in need of treatment?
Judge Furgeson. There are no personal use cases in my
court. I mean, it is not close. Probably the closest thing to a
small amount of smuggling comes from what we call
``backpackers,'' people who are convinced to put 40, 50, 60
pounds of marijuana on their back in groups of 5, 10, 15, and
they backpack that marijuana across wide tracts of dessert.
Mr. Mica. And that's the majority of your cases?
Judge Furgeson. No. That is the cases where people are
bringing in smaller amounts. They're bringing----
Mr. Mica. Still trafficking?
Judge Furgeson. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. The other thing I hear repeatedly is we've got to
do away with minimum mandatory. We've held hearings on minimum
mandatories, that our Federal laws are just too tough on these
guys. What is your advice to the subcommittee? Should we throw
away the tough sentencing guidelines?
Judge Furgeson. I like the guidelines because I think the
guidelines build uniformity into our system. Now, I'm a
younger--I'm a newer judge. I have been on the bench 6 years.
Some judges with longer terms do not like the guidelines, but I
think the guidelines are helpful.
I, like all judges, would like to have more flexibility in
sentencing, and I do appreciate the safety valve----
Mr. Mica. That's what I was going to ask you about. Most
people aren't aware, but Congress also gave a safety valve, so
there is an opportunity to give people a chance and gives you
some flexibility in this process.
Judge Furgeson. Absolutely. And the safety valve provisions
in the sentencing guidelines are very helpful to Federal
judges, very helpful.
Mr. Mica. You talked about prosecution and your need--I
mean, for additional resources, the incredible strain this has
created on the court system there. Is it also affecting other
services, like the U.S. Marshals?
Judge Furgeson. The work of the marshals on the border has
increased, I think, about 100-plus percent in 4 or 5 years, and
the resources, the additional personnel and staffing, has
increased 15 percent.
The work the U.S. Marshals are doing on the border in my
opinion is heroic, and it is done under very daunting
circumstances. I would really hope that the Attorney General
will consider a substantial increase in marshal personnel for
the border. What those men and women are trying to do is close
to impossible.
Mr. Mica. The other thing that we've noticed--I have been
involved in this back in the 1980's with Senator Hawkins when
we did a lot in starting the war, a real war on drugs, and we
did the Andean strategy, the drug certification, Vice
President's task force, and other things that made a big
difference, and we started seeing a dramatic decline in drug
use and going after illegal narcotics, but the beginning of
this administration we actually saw, I think, in 1992, about
29,000 drug prosecution cases. Then they started dropping,
dropping, dropping drug prosecution.
We started raising hell with them back in 1995 when we took
over, and they started getting back. They're about to the 1992
level of going after. It sounds like you are doing most of the
work.
My point is, now I'm getting back as chairman of the
subcommittee reports that sentencing is going down, down, down,
prosecution is going up. Do you find that to be the case in
your jurisdiction?
Judge Furgeson. You mean that people are getting lesser
sentences?
Mr. Mica. Lesser sentences. Yes.
Judge Furgeson. I follow the guidelines, and I would be
very surprised--I don't know what my statistics are. I sentence
500 or 600 people a year, maybe more than that, maybe up to 700
or 800 now, but I follow the guidelines, and so I am not clear
that the sentences are reducing in severity.
Mr. Mica. Well, look at your jurisdiction and maybe you
could provide us with some of that specific information.
Judge Furgeson. I would be glad to do that.
Mr. Mica. We would appreciate that.
Let me turn now to the Border Patrol. You know, one of the
disturbing things we have heard here is threats on our agents,
and some of these drug traffickers, particularly on the Mexican
side, have become pretty emboldened, threatening our agents.
There have been reports of bounties. What is the response of
the agency to those kinds of threats that we've heard of?
Mr. Barker. Every threat is taken seriously and they are
investigated by the FBI. Once we get them, we make sure that
the alert is put out. These agents are well capable of
protecting themselves, and we make sure that, even in those
situations where they are not teamed up, that help is close by
in the event that it does occur.
Mr. Mica. What kind of penalties are there if there is an
attack or somebody goes after one of our agents? And do we have
a reward system to so-called ``return the favor''?
Mr. Barker. There is no reward system, per se, but, again,
these agents certainly are capable of protecting themselves
and, again, we take them all seriously, and we make provisions
to make sure that there is backup in the event that these
agents are attacked.
We are seeing that in many forms, not in terms of a bounty,
but the attacks on these agents both in the form of rocks
thrown and shots fired at our agents. Just in a little bit over
a month we had an agent pursuing a load back to the border,
back to the river, and when he got to the place where the
backpackers had brought the drugs into the United States they
were met by a person who was laying in wait who fired a shot
through the windshield. Fortunately, the agents--it was during
the day time--saw the person level the weapon and got down. It
went through the windshield on the driver's side.
We are seeing that a lot more. We are seeing it in terms of
rockings where they are protecting loads once they are
intercepted and they try to make their way back across the
border.
Mr. Mica. So, compared to 2 or 3 years ago, what is the
situation with acts of violence against Border agents?
Mr. Barker. It has gotten worse. And, again, not all of
them are firearms.
Mr. Mica. Are you all dealing with Mexican officials on the
other side and asking for cooperation?
Mr. Barker. Yes. We do that on a regular basis.
Mr. Mica. What's the response?
Mr. Barker. The response is mixed right now, mainly because
they are introducing this new police on the border, and we have
had the contacts with them, and sometimes they do show up,
sometimes they don't.
One of the problems is identifying the location both in
Mexico and in the United States where someone can get there in
a reasonable period of time. We have engaged with them to map
these locations, so when we identify a place they'll know
exactly where it is.
The response time is the critical issue, and that's the
part that we are trying to get our arms around, because if we
call them and they are not able to respond almost immediately,
it is almost futile.
Mr. Mica. Mr. Logan, you talked about the difficulty of
going after some of these drugs that are coming in across the
border from Mexico, the more sophisticated ways to disguise
narcotics. What is the progress that Customs is making in
getting equipment and technology in place to deal with this
problem?
Mr. Logan. Well, for example, at Otay we have two, a Vacis
system and a standing prototype x ray. Another Vacis is on tap,
I believe, for August. There's also some technology being done
related to submarine warfare called a ``sonar pinging device,''
which we hope and anticipate may have some success in
identifying loads in gas tanks, as well as tires.
Gas tanks, Mr. Chairman, account for approximately 26 to 30
percent of all narcotics loads in vehicles that come across, so
we think that advantage will help us.
The technology is vital and it is crucial, but it never
replaces a trained investigator or a trained inspector, inter-
agency cooperation, and intelligence, which clearly continues
to be the most helpful, whether it is electronic means, wire
tap information, informant information, interagency
investigations, like tar pit--continue to be vital in trying to
find that needle in the haystack. The haystack is growing
immensely.
Mr. Mica. We have been down to the southwest border, and we
have conducted hearings both on the border and reviews of what
is going on, and also back here in Washington. One of the
recommendations was that we have some type of a border
coordinator or border czar. Has the administration made any
progress, to your knowledge, on appointing a coordinator,
someone to help make certain those efforts all come together?
Do you know anything about this Mr. Logan, Mr. Keefe, Mr.
Barker?
Mr. Logan. Well, there continues always to be interagency
cooperation. To my knowledge, there has not been a coordinator
named.
Mr. Mica. No progress on that? Mr. Barker.
Mr. Barker. Yes, there is a border coordinator. Prior--it
was the U.S. Attorney in the State of New Mexico, but he has
since left and another one was appointed, but I agree with Mr.
Logan. I think the interagency cooperation on the ground is
crucial and I think there is quite a bit of that, because I
know, especially in El Paso, we interact quite regularly with
DEA and Customs. In fact, we've gotten agents on every task
force that those two agencies have.
Mr. Mica. And overall we do not have a coordinator in place
at this point?
Mr. Barker. I think there is one, and he is a U.S.
Attorney.
Mr. Keefe. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona I
believe is currently on the Southwest Border Council. Yes, sir.
And they meet regularly, as do the law enforcement agencies
meet with that council regularly, sir.
Mr. Mica. OK. Well, that was one of the recommendations
that came out of the hearing, that we have somebody in charge
and coordinate. Maybe we can check with the agency heads to see
how that is progressing. It was one of the problems that we
identified.
Are DEA agents still restricted, to your knowledge, on
being armed in Mexico?
Mr. Keefe. Nothing has changed, to my knowledge.
Mr. Mica. Nothing has changed. Are you aware of any major
kingpin drug trafficker expedited since DEA last came to
testify before our subcommittee?
Mr. Keefe. No, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mica. No one?
Mr. Keefe. No, sir.
Mr. Mica. You testified mostly, Mr. Keefe, about black-tar
heroin and the focus of this hearing has been predominantly on
the black-tar heroin, but the meth explosion is basically
another phenomena that we've never seen anything like.
Everywhere we conduct a hearing now we are hearing local and
State law enforcement officials tell us that they are being
inundated by methamphetamine and mostly traced back to Mexico.
Are you getting those same reports?
Mr. Keefe. We see it back to Mexico or to Mexican national
organizations that are producing it in California.
Mr. Mica. They are also using networks of illegals involved
in transport and even production in the States now.
Mr. Keefe. That's correct.
Mr. Mica. So the other thing that we're seeing is the
actual meth product being transported from Mexico, and now we
are getting into the illegals and the meth gangs being involved
in these meth labs; is that also correct?
Mr. Keefe. In the United States?
Mr. Mica. Yes.
Mr. Keefe. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. Well, with producing small amounts of
methamphetamine there are some domestic chemicals that can be
used. Are we seeing precursors also come in from Mexico?
Mr. Keefe. Yes. Obviously, they would be smuggled in, so
yes there are some precursors coming in from Mexico, as well as
coming into the United States, purchasing them here too, sir.
Mr. Mica. This is just beyond belief, but in the central
part of the United States, midwest, I guess Representative
Latham had gotten a training center established at the cost of
about $1.2 million a year for the past several years just to
train local and State enforcement people on how to deal with
meth labs. I understand going after meth labs is not a simple
thing, because there is explosive and hazardous material
involved. That's just, again, for that little tri-State area.
Are you seeing or getting reports from local officials of
the same problem in dealing with, again, this meth production,
this meth lab around the country?
Mr. Keefe. Absolutely. Absolutely, Mr. Chairman. It is a
tremendous problem, as you mentioned, because the toxicity of
the chemicals, the potential for explosion, and environmental
concerns when they dump the waste into a local stream or just
bury it in the ground.
Mr. Mica. Again, I don't want to be over-exaggerating the
meth situation, but everywhere we go--we have been in
Sacramento. I mean, I couldn't believe the testimony we heard a
couple of months ago from Mr. Ose's District along San Diego.
San Diego had a meth epidemic.
We were in Louisiana and heard incredible testimony of the
meth coming now into the New Orleans area.
In Dallas, TX, for Mr. Vitter, we held a hearing there.
They told us there were 1,000 meth lab seizures in Oklahoma and
the northern part of Texas.
Are these figures accurate?
Mr. Keefe. I would have to get you that information. I'm
sure DEA has that information. We certainly can get it for you,
Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mica. I see we have this Operation Tar Pit to go after
the black-tar heroin now that we are seeing an explosion of.
What about meth? Do we have a similar operation for meth, and
Mexican meth, in particular?
Mr. Keefe. We have numerous investigations, joint
investigations, going on right as we speak, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mica. Again, this is a different dimension. We know
that black-tar heroin is being produced in Mexico, and Mexico
feels we can identify it by your signature analysis program.
Now we have not only the hard meth coming in, the product
coming in, but we've got them producing, using the United
States and these venues I've just described as production
facilities in smaller labs.
Do we have an effort to go after these people and trace
them back? And many of them, we're getting reports, again, are
illegals who shouldn't be here in the first place.
Mr. Keefe. Yes, sir. Sir, if I could just explain, as far
as the number of labs go you referred to in different parts of
the country.
Mr. Mica. Right.
Mr. Keefe. A lot of those were referred to, as we call
them, for lack of a better term, ``Mom and Pop labs,'' which
are very small, produce maybe an ounce. A pound would be large.
These are usually not Mexican national organized crime groups
involved with these labs.
Mr. Mica. Again, I've got to tell you, from Iowa, and the
law enforcement folks told us that Mexican illegals are
involved with the actual production. Trafficking is one thing,
and I just described to you after your video that they had set
up a sophisticated operation with auto parts, set up a store
front, and were putting in the hard product. Now it shifts to
production domestically. Bringing a hard product in is one
problem, and we are discussing that as it transits the border
here, but now we are seeing a new phase of this.
I know there are many, many Mom and Pop, but we're also
seeing bigger producers, Mexican gang initiated.
Mr. Keefe. Agree 100 percent. What we would say at DEA,
what we would see is that 10 percent of the clandestine labs in
the United States are involved with Mexican traffickers, which
are responsible for 85 percent of the methamphetamine in the
United States. So the labs that we see the Mexican nationals
involved in in the United States are what we call these ``super
labs,'' which would be capable of making more than 10 pounds at
a time.
We see primarily most of those labs to date in the
California area, and the traffickers as you referred to in
Sioux City and those areas in the midwest, it is being
transported across the United States to those organizations for
distribution.
I'm not saying that there aren't Mexican labs in the
midwest, sir. At this time, DEA has not seen as we refer to the
super labs. We see more Mom and Pops, which, as you mentioned,
are a tremendous concern for those areas because of the
financial problems in the cost to clean up those 1,000 labs,
whether it is the Mexicans involved with the production or the
Mom and Pop labs. It is still a tremendous law enforcement
concern that is costing millions of dollars to clean up the
problem.
Mr. Mica. You also testified about payment in cocaine, this
bartering.
Mr. Keefe. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. Can you describe for the subcommittee a little
bit more of what new pattern we are seeing?
Mr. Keefe. What we used to see in the early 1990's, when
the Colombians started to work through the Mexicans, they used
to pay the Mexicans for transportation so much money per kilo
to get the cocaine into the United States. Let's use, back in
the days when they were sending it in to Los Angeles, for
instance, they would send it into Los Angeles. Once it was
successfully delivered into Los Angeles, the Mexicans would
return the drugs to the Colombian traffickers in the United
States for distribution across the United States.
The Colombians have now relinquished a lot of that to the
Mexicans, and instead of paying them per kilograms they share
with them. If it is a load, for instance, of 1,000 kilos, for
example, coming into the United States, they will give, part of
their agreement, 500 kilos to the Mexicans for the Mexicans to
distribute, and then the Colombians will take their part and
distribute it in those areas, primarily the East Coast for
those. So the profit margin for the Mexicans, as you can
imagine, has grown tremendously by doing business this way.
Mr. Mica. Yes. Let me go back to our Border Patrol
representative. One of the problems that we have had is
corruption on the Mexican side of the border, and we are
hearing that it is becoming more and more difficult to deal
with Mexican officials because of the corruption element. Have
you had a problem in that regard?
Mr. Barker. Normally it does not affect us in terms of
narcotics investigation because that is turned over to DEA.
Most of the relationship that we have is to obtain information
and to obtain cooperation that when something occurs on this
side of the border and the person flees Mexico that we have
some way to get him back or to apprehend the person. But in
terms of investigation of narcotics, no, because we don't do
the investigation.
Alien smuggling is almost non-existent, and those are the
larger investigations that we do.
The cooperation is basically exchange of information, have
a cooperative environment, but it does not translate to
investigations.
Mr. Mica. With your Border Patrol agents--I know DEA and
Customs and others interdict more of the drugs, but what are
your agents seeing out there as far as drugs coming across the
border? More? Less? And what kinds of narcotics?
Mr. Barker. It is more, and the majority of our seizures is
related to marijuana. They are using backpackers a lot more
than they did before. They are breaking the loads down in
smaller quantities and using more backpackers just to make sure
that if it is caught they do not lose a great quantity of their
drugs.
It has changed over the last few years. Probably about 5 or
6 years ago we saw them floating maybe a ton of marijuana
across the border. They do not do that any more. They use
backpackers, horseback riders in remote locations, and in some
cases backpackers go for 10, 20 miles to deliver the goods.
They do it over a period of days to a specified location where
it is picked up.
So we are seeing the proliferation of use of backpackers,
also in the tunnels and, in El Paso, the drainage system. They
are packaging the marijuana so they can fit through 18-inch
tunnels to get them to the place of distribution.
Mr. Mica. I've flown over the border in some of the patrol
surveillance planes, and that's a pretty big border, so it
sounds like that is creating an even greater problem for you
when they break down the loads in this manner; is that correct?
Mr. Barker. Yes, sir. But we have ways to respond to that.
We have been the beneficiary of some of the cameras that allow
us to see greater areas.
The other thing that we do is we have agents that are
experienced trackers, and normally they will check these remote
locations to look for the telltale sign of people smuggling
drugs, because they can tell the difference, generally, between
a person who is leading aliens across as a smuggler of aliens
or a person who is backpacking narcotics, and they are very
good at that and they track these people.
The one thing that it gives us, it gives us a better
opportunity to catch them because of the time that it would
take for them to get from the border, the intended destination.
And we have many ways of doing that.
Judge Furgeson. Mr. Chairman, you mentioned cameras. I get
a lot of cases with sensors. There are sensors all along the
border used by the Border Patrol, and those sensors pick up a
lot of traffic.
Mr. Mica. Well, we are trying to get the most sophisticated
equipment available and resources, both manpower and also
assisting Customs and DEA and others, and technology to deal
with the problem.
One of the things that we have seen, and I think also in
this video, we also conducted a hearing just on drugs through
package service and the mail. Is DEA and Customs seeing, again,
more sophisticated, legitimate use of legitimate transport for
moving drugs around the country? Is that what you are seeing,
Mr. Logan?
Mr. Logan. Absolutely, Mr. Chairman. The courier services,
the FedExs, the UPSs, when it absolutely, positively has to be
there, you can access your package departure in arrival zones
on the Internet. I'm confident that DEA is tracking that
domestically. They've got some terrific cases going on in San
Diego. UPS in San Diego, for example, once the narcotics are
successfully smuggled in, that was one of the largest
warehouses on most of narcotics because they were being shipped
out of the UPS warehouses in Chula Vista. DEA was highly
successful in an interagency State and local effort to track
those packages and deliver them.
Mr. Mica. Mr. Logan, can you provide the subcommittee with
an update on anything relating to status of Arellano-Felix, the
brothers that we have been after?
Mr. Logan. Well, Customs is part of a larger operation with
the FBI and DEA on the Arellano-Felix organization, and
certainly we are frustrated that those fugitives have not been
found or located. Customs continues to provide manpower, along
with DEA and FBI, State, and locals to work every lead that we
can. Certainly it is our judgment that narcotics that's
transiting in the Baja area, there is a toll taken, the tax by
the area on the Felix organization.
Interesting side light, with Tar Pit we don't believe, that
according to the DEA SAC in San Diego, Errol Chavez, that they
were paying a toll, because they were able to keep the amounts
and the black-tar heroin coming through those areas with a very
low profile, so we were unaware of any toll being taxed by the
Arellanos in the black tar.
Joe may have some additional on that, but that was our
sense in San Diego.
Mr. Mica. Do you have anything on that, Mr. Keefe?
Mr. Keefe. As Mr. Logan said, we did not see this group out
of Nayarit connected at all to the Arellano-Felix. We saw them
totally independent, right from the production, the growth of
the opium, right through the distribution into the United
States.
Mr. Mica. What do they call that? Integrated----
Mr. Keefe. Vertical integration.
Mr. Mica. A vertical integration operation.
Well, I appreciate each of you coming forward today. Our
subcommittee is trying to put together a coherent policy to
deal with this problem.
As I said last night, we made some great progress. We know
that most of these narcotics are produced in Colombia. Now we
are seeing for the first time a dramatic increase of heroin
production in Mexico, but which gives us another challenge and
front to deal with, particularly given the level of corruption
that we have had testimony relating to the problems, again, in
Mexico.
Now the violence in Mexico--now we hear about vertically
integrated operations to produce this, coupled with the new
activity with methamphetamine. That presents us with a pretty
serious challenge.
Unfortunately, I think it is going to take even more
violence in Mexico to get their attention and cooperation, and,
unfortunately, they are seeing that, too, at unprecedented
levels. Maybe at the election they are having there will be
some change and the emphasis placed on the domestic threat that
poses for Mexico, and certainly the threat and problems it has
created in the United States.
Again, I want to thank all of you. I apologize. As I said,
we were up voting until 2. There is no lack of interest in this
subject. We probably will submit additional questions to you
for the record, since we don't have a full membership of this
subcommittee here, and we would like your response, if
possible.
Again, we appreciate your cooperation today.
There being no further business or questions at this time,
we'll excuse this panel.
Our second panel this morning consists of two witnesses.
The first witness is Chief Fabienne Brooks with the criminal
investigations division of the King County Sheriffs Department
in Seattle, WA. The second witness is Mr. Mario Medina. Mr.
Medina's family, unfortunately, has experienced tragedy along
the Chimayo, NM, border and will testify about that situation
that so dramatically affected their family.
We will just stand in recess for about 2 minutes.
[Recess.]
Mr. Mica. We'll call the subcommittee back to order and
again welcome Chief Brooks and Mr. Medina.
I'll call first on Chief Brooks, who is with the criminal
investigations division of King County Sheriffs Department,
Seattle, WA.
Before I do that, let me say that we are an investigations
and oversight subcommittee of Congress, and we must swear you
in as you provide testimony to our subcommittee, so if you'd
stand and raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Mica. The witnesses answered in the affirmative. We
will now recognize Chief Brooks with the King County Sheriffs
Department from Seattle, WA.
Welcome. You are recognized.
STATEMENTS OF CHIEF FABIENNE BROOKS, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
DIVISION, KING COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, SEATTLE, WA; AND
MARIO MEDINA, FAMILY VICTIM, CHIMAYO, NM
Ms. Brooks. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. On behalf of the
King County sheriff, Dave Reichert, I am very honored to be
here this morning to speak with you on the topic of black-tar
heroin.
My name is Fabienne Brooks and I am the chief of the
criminal investigations division for the King County Sheriffs
Office. I have already submitted my testimony.
Mr. Mica. Without objection, your entire statement will be
made part of the record, and please proceed.
Ms. Brooks. OK. I will summarize it.
Mr. Mica. Go right ahead.
Ms. Brooks. Just briefly, informationally, King County is
the largest metropolitan county in Washington State in terms of
population, number of cities, and employment. It is the 12th
most populous county in the United States, and the King County
Sheriffs Office, with over 1,000 employees, is the third-
largest police agency in the State of Washington and 13th
largest sheriffs office in the United States.
King County is an area that poses many attractive
attributes for the distribution of heroin. It is the home of a
major international airport, it is the hub of passenger and
commercial rail and bus lines, and it has significant highway
systems, not the least of which is I-5, which runs from the
Mexican border up through Canada. We have a significant
population, and thus it is a large customer base for this type
of drug.
King County is ranked as high as third in the Nation in
heroin use in the recent past, and this is evidenced by a large
and established user population.
Just about 95 percent of the heroin used in King County has
been identified as Mexican black-tar heroin. Drugs are secreted
in or inside persons willing to bring these drugs into the area
for a fee. They are hidden inside commercial trains or freight
trucks crossing into the United States. We think much of the
heroin reaching our area comes in vehicles, as you heard from
earlier testimony.
In 1998 we arrested what is known as a ``cell leader,''
which is a person who oversees a communication or a
distribution network, with 9 pounds of black-tar heroin. This
arrived in just one load from Mexico. The load was secreted
inside a specially made metal box that was contoured to fit
inside an engine block of a car. Once the car arrived, it was
driven into a garage, where the engine was dismantled and the
heroin was removed.
We believe this particular leader had been in business
since the mid-1980's, and he would receive a load this size
about once to twice a month.
As with many organized crime groups operating in an area,
crime also accompanies the activities of heroin dealers, and
this ranges from homicides to minor thefts committed by users.
Of the people incarcerated in the King County jail, 60 percent
are there on drug-related charges, not necessarily just heroin,
but on drug-related charges.
Several years ago, the King County Sheriff's Office
recovered a baby that had been stolen from a family whose
father was thought to be connected to the sales of drugs. The
baby was to be held for ransom until the father paid the
suspect.
The family reluctantly called the police and the child was
safely reunited with the family and suspects arrested after a
brief pursuit.
So, in addition to being ranked third in a use of heroin
nationwide, King County has also been ranked as third for
heroin overdoses, and that is what makes this area consider
itself to be in an epidemic stage.
The 1998 rate of heroin-related deaths had grown 200
percent over the previous 8 years. The reason for the deaths is
the purity of the Mexican heroin, which we have tested to be
between 60 to 80 percent pure.
Because of the geographical condensing of the people,
street dealing in heroin is more prevalent in this community in
our area and it provides a unique law enforcement problem for
the Seattle Police Department. They have collected data that
shows users come in from outside the area to buy heroin, and a
large number of the buyers travel in areas of King County to
get there.
The strategies of the drug dealers, which was not talked
about earlier, is that they use commercial airlines, they use
produce trucks, they use passenger vehicles, and one of the
ways they set up locations in our community, we've discovered,
is that they arrange to rent a house that has a garage, and
then they hire someone to take care of their home so that it
doesn't arouse suspicion by the neighbors so that it doesn't
appear neglected, and they act like quiet, no-problem
neighbors, oftentimes picking locations on dead ends where it
is hard to surveil and hard to pay attention to the traffic.
They hire neighbors perhaps to watch the house for safety
reasons and to get information on strange cars that may be seen
in the area. Sort of a neighborhood block watch in reverse.
They can also arrange for a vehicle repair business. This
is what they do, as well.
The challenges for the King County Sheriffs Office and law
enforcement in our area is because we are so diverse and large
with the different number of police agencies involved that
there is a high need for inter-agency communication. Just
because the heroin is purchased in one area doesn't necessarily
mean that it is going to stay in that area. There are multiple
routes. We are one of only three States that doesn't have two-
party consent. I mean, we do not have one-party consent in our
State. I apologize for that error.
What we are doing in King County is participating in a
county-wide heroin initiative task force that has brought
together representatives of all groups associated with this
problem--care providers, health care people, fire department,
police agencies, treatment providers--looking at the heroin
problem from treatment and prevention to enforcement. And we
are also involved in the northwest HIDTA Drug Task Force in our
area.
So, in summary, I would like to thank you again for the
opportunity to address you, and I will be happy to answer
questions.
Mr. Mica. Thank you for your testimony.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Brooks follows:]
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Mr. Mica. We will get to questions in just a few minutes.
I am pleased now to recognize Mr. Medina. I appreciate your
coming forward and providing us with your testimony and your
personal experience. I know you had a tragedy in your family.
At this time, if you could, sir, describe what has taken
place and the, again, horrible effects on your family to the
subcommittee. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Medina. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to read a
brief part of my statement here.
Mr. Mica. Take your time. Again, we appreciate your coming
forward.
Mr. Medina. Sure. My family had to deal with this very
problem. My sister passed away from a drug overdose. My only
sister is now dead and I am left an only child. Instead of my
parents retiring at the age of 65, they are now raising their
two granddaughters as their own children. My nieces, who are
now 13 and 11, ask questions as to why God took their mother.
These are results caused by drugs in society.
Mr. Mica. Thank you. I appreciate your, again, coming
before us today.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Medina follows:]
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Mr. Mica. Let me first turn, if I may, to Ms. Brooks, if
that concludes your testimony.
Mr. Medina. Yes, it does.
Mr. Mica. I will start with several questions. First of
all, you said your area is third in the United States in heroin
overdoses; is that correct?
Ms. Brooks. That's correct.
Mr. Mica. And you said there was a 200 percent increase in
deaths, heroin overdose deaths. What period was that for?
Ms. Brooks. From 1990 through 1998.
Mr. Mica. From 1990 to----
Ms. Brooks. Over a 4-year period, yes.
Mr. Mica. And that continues? You're seeing a continuation
of the same type of problem?
Ms. Brooks. Exactly. I don't have the information for 1999
statistics, but they estimated that the number of deaths was on
the increase.
Mr. Mica. One of the things that we have tried to do--and
we do have oversight over the HIDTAs, the high-intensity drug
trafficking area designation, is to provide resources to areas
that have been impacted. I'm afraid we may have to declare the
United States a HIDTA before this is over. But how are the
resources that are being provided by the Federal Government
being utilized? Are they adequate? Are they properly utilized?
Is it just a lack of not getting additional assistance? Is this
effective use of our Federal tax dollars? Could you give us
your insight?
Ms. Brooks. Well, it certainly is an effective use of our
tax dollars in terms of attacking the drug problem. We have a
close working relationship with the HIDTA Task Force and I have
an investigator assigned to that task force to help focus on
drug investigations in King County.
Federal rules allow for a different level of investigation
of drug dealers.
Mr. Mica. Yes.
Ms. Brooks. Part of the information that we get comes from
neighborhoods and phone calls. That doesn't necessarily rise to
the level of Federal investigation. So, while the money from
HIDTA goes to Federal-level investigations, local law
enforcement sort of has to keep doing with the funding that
they have.
Local law enforcement block grants for collaborative
efforts on the local law enforcement level would provide
additional resources for us to be able to look into the problem
and to approach the problem.
Mr. Mica. Did I hear you describe to the subcommittee a
situation with black-tar heroin has reached an epidemic
proportion in that region, or your locale?
Ms. Brooks. Heroin use has reached an epidemic proportion,
and 95 percent of it is black-tar heroin.
Mr. Mica. You said 95 percent?
Ms. Brooks. Right.
Mr. Mica. That's an incredible figure.
Ms. Brooks. Right.
Mr. Mica. Our subcommittee has been as far as Sacramento.
We have not been to your jurisdiction. But that is alarming.
And most of it is coming in transited over I-5, you said,
through couriers?
Ms. Brooks. Through couriers, yes. I mean, there are some
airplanes, but----
Mr. Mica. It has also made your area, now that you have the
narcotics, sort of a magnet for attracting additional users and
criminal activity.
Ms. Brooks. Exactly.
Mr. Mica. Do you think we can handle this by just spending
more money on treatment and giving up the enforcement?
Ms. Brooks. I don't think we should give up the enforcement
piece of it. There is always going to be a need for the
enforcement part. I think adding more resources for an overall
holistic approach to it would help reduce the level, but if you
just put money on treatment then the enforcement goes lacking.
Mr. Mica. Basically, you are drowning in this stuff.
Ms. Brooks. Yes.
Mr. Mica. The sheer quantities that are coming in.
Ms. Brooks. Yes.
Mr. Mica. Mr. Medina, your sister died a tragic death. What
did she die from?
Mr. Medina. Ingestion of black-tar heroin.
Mr. Mica. Where did that heroin come from?
Mr. Medina. To my knowledge, I----
Mr. Mica. There's only one place that I know it is
produced. That's Mexico.
Mr. Medina. I guess so.
Mr. Mica. Unfortunately, your family's situation I
understand was repeated some 80-plus times in the community you
came from. Is that correct?
Mr. Medina. That's in 1 year.
Mr. Mica. In 1 year?
Mr. Medina. It repeated itself in 1 year 80 times.
Mr. Mica. So she isn't alone in losing her life to this
deadly narcotic. Was she involved in criminal activity, or----
Mr. Medina. Not that we know of.
Mr. Mica. And I believe she also was the victim of a very
high content, high purity content black-tar heroin.
Mr. Medina. Yes, she was.
Mr. Mica. And you said she left behind two children?
Mr. Medina. Yes, she did.
Mr. Mica. What has been the effect on your family?
Mr. Medina. Pretty much just a family affected as drugs as
far as the small community we live in. Just about every family
has been affected in one way or another, whether it be a
friend, a relative, a close sibling. It has affected everyone.
Mr. Mica. Well, you know, I'm one of the Federal elected
officials. We are only temporary representatives here trying to
figure out ways to establish policy to keep this from
happening. You were kind enough to come and tell us about your
tragedy. What is your recommendation to us? Should we give this
up? As a human being who has probably been inflicted with a
tremendous amount of pain, what is your recommendation to
Congress, to me and others who set this policy?
Mr. Medina. My recommendation would be to try and stop the
problem before it starts. Pretty much I know a lot of users in
the community that I live in, and I think you need to get the
people before they start using the drug.
Mr. Mica. Once they have become a user, our statistics show
a 70 percent failure rate with public treatment programs. Did
your sister go through any treatment program?
Mr. Medina. No.
Mr. Mica. Alright. Then she wasn't a habitual user?
Mr. Medina. She used about maybe 8 months.
Mr. Mica. So she was addicted for 8 months?
Mr. Medina. Yes.
Mr. Mica. And then died of an overdose?
Mr. Medina. Yes.
Mr. Mica. Do you know others in the community that have
been similar----
Mr. Medina. I know many.
Mr. Mica. How big is Chimayo?
Mr. Medina. It is approximately about 3,000 in population.
Mr. Mica. It's 3,000 and you had 85 deaths?
Mr. Medina. Yes. But that's actually like Rio Arriba
County, which is not a southern town. It is actually a northern
county in New Mexico. But it is actually traveling the whole
county now. It is not just Chimayo.
Mr. Mica. So you think we should continue our efforts to
keep this stuff from coming across our borders?
Mr. Medina. I think the effort needs to put more not in
treatment but in stopping people from using the first time.
Mr. Mica. Going after the people who are dealing in this
death.
Have the people who gave your sister the narcotics been
located?
Mr. Medina. Not to my knowledge.
Mr. Mica. So basically her death has gone unavenged?
Mr. Medina. Yes. Pretty much.
Mr. Mica. Well, again, we appreciate your coming forward
and giving our subcommittee your testimony, your personal
experience. There were 15,973 that died in 1998 as a direct
result of illegal narcotics and drug overdoses. Therefore, the
number is growing and growing. We don't have the 1999 figures,
and we are losing more than we lost in some of our wars as a
result of these narcotics.
The testimony you have provided, Ms. Brooks, shows us
another spot on the chart and the national map of a very
serious problem. Any other recommendations you might have for
this subcommittee on how to deal with this problem? Again, as a
local official we seek your input on how we can do a better
job.
Ms. Brooks. In just listening to Mr. Medina, one of the
areas I think we need to focus on is education, because the
young kids have the perception of heroin being the person who
uses the thing around your arm and you inject it, but they
aren't injecting it, so they don't think it is a big problem,
and they think that they can use it once and that's fine. Well,
statistics show that that doesn't happen, and I think if we can
put more focus on educating and letting people know the extent
of the problem and what the ramifications of it are for the
young people it may be able to deter them from using it.
Mr. Mica. One of the things that we've done in Congress is
we've started a program. It is the most extensive in the
history of the U.S. Government, really, as far as drug
education and media attention to the problem, that's our
national media campaign. It is over $1 billion plus matched by
$1 billion locally, and that has been in effect a little over a
year now. Unfortunately, we are getting back mixed reviews on
its effectiveness. What is your observation, Ms. Brooks?
Ms. Brooks. Personally, I have to admit I haven't seen it,
and I watch TV a lot. I'm not quite sure where the message is
going, if it is going to the right people.
Mr. Mica. That disturbs me, because you obviously have a
target area. You are third in the Nation.
Ms. Brooks. Yes.
Mr. Mica. We are spending $1 billion and requiring another
$1 billion in contributions, and you haven't seen the program.
We're going to have the drug czar in here, I think July
11th, and do another review of the program, not to give the
drug czar a hard time, but when we have an area like your
community that is experiencing, again, dramatic increases in
deaths and abuse and trafficking, and we don't have even you,
being aware of that program, or it being targeted to there, we
obviously have a problem.
Mr. Medina, have you seen any of the ads or efforts to
educate?
Mr. Medina. Pretty much the same old clinics and, you know,
the methadone and these high-dollar rehabs, which I think is
more a private industry, moneymaking situation. Other than
that, that's about all.
Mr. Mica. I think I would have to share your opinion. It
has turned into a cottage industry, and again, people aren't
aware of it, but we have doubled since 1992 the amount of money
in treatment, Even since the new majority, we've increased the
money for treatment some 26 percent in 4\1/2\, 5 years here,
and the numbers who are addicted are dramatically increasing,
and particularly among our young people.
How old was your sister, Mr. Medina?
Mr. Medina. She was 31 at the time.
Mr. Mica. Thirty-one. Pretty much destroyed her life, and
I'm sure the effects on your family have been dramatic.
I don't think there is a family in the country that hasn't
been affected today. I give these speeches on Tuesday nights,
usually, the special orders, and talk for an hour on the drug
problem, and as I left last week, one of the clerks who
followed me out at midnight said, ``Mr. Mica, my son is 21,'' I
think he said, ``and the last year or two he has been on
drugs,'' and his family has been through a living hell and they
can't find successful treatment. They can't deal with the
problem. Unfortunately, we are hearing that repeatedly across
the land. It continues to be something that is an incredible
challenge for us.
Sort of in closing, Ms. Brooks, the enforcement and
prosecution levels in some States are not as tough as the
Federal minimum mandatories. What is the situation in your
State? Are your State laws tougher or are the Federal laws
tougher?
Ms. Brooks. I believe the Federal laws are tougher in our
State.
Mr. Mica. And would you recommend to the subcommittee--
again, I am under tremendous pressure. We've held a hearing on
lowering the minimum mandatories or abolishing them, and we get
criticized for having them. We have allowed flexibility and,
some, again, relief and flexibility to judges. What is your
recommendation to the panel?
Ms. Brooks. My recommendation, in terms of the mandatory
minimums, are to work toward increasing those minimums on the
State level so that they match what the Federal levels are.
Mr. Mica. Well, that would be something you would have to
do with Washington, but----
Ms. Brooks. Well, I would recommend that they stay where
they are.
Mr. Mica. At the Federal level?
Ms. Brooks. Yes.
Mr. Mica. Yes. And you, again, see that as some type of a
deterrent or effective way to deal with the problem?
Ms. Brooks. That's one way to deal with the problem. I
think, again, it needs to be an approach that includes
treatment providers as well as punishment, because,
unfortunately, once people get addicted they feel like they
have to--well, they do commit crimes to continue their habits,
and if we can treat them for that issue----
Mr. Mica. And separating them out----
Ms. Brooks. And separating them out----
Mr. Mica [continuing]. Between people who are addicted and
committing crimes and people who are trafficking or dealing in
deadly quantities.
Ms. Brooks. Exactly.
Mr. Mica. What about prosecution? Are you all going after,
at the local level, the traffickers and dealers primarily, or
are you focused on just the users?
Ms. Brooks. We are focusing primarily on the dealers. There
are certainly users that we target, but we focus on the mid-
level dealers who are distributing the heroin.
In King County, 1997 we had prosecutions to over 3,000. In
1998, it went up to 3,200. I don't have the 1999 statistics,
but it was believed that it would be about at that same level,
so we are still prosecuting and it is increasing.
Mr. Mica. And you said over 60 percent of those in your
jails, local jails, are there because of drug-related offenses?
Ms. Brooks. Yes.
Mr. Mica. Are they there for a felony or for misdemeanors
or combination? Again, how would you describe the people who
end up incarcerated, small-time users?
Ms. Brooks. I don't have the information in terms of if the
60 percent are primarily felonies or misdemeanors, but I can
tell you they are in there for a variety of reasons, from the
petty shoplifts up to the major burglaries and assaults.
Mr. Mica. But you would say that crime is a result of
their----
Ms. Brooks. The crime is a result of their addiction.
Mr. Mica [continuing]. Addiction?
Ms. Brooks. Yes.
Mr. Mica. Well, we appreciate your testimony before this
subcommittee.
Mr. Medina, we also appreciate your coming before us.
Did you have any final comments or recommendations? Again,
I know you came a long way, but it is important that we focus
on this problem, and we don't want another individual lost in
our country or family affected the way you have had a horrible
tragedy occur, so again we thank you for coming, for being a
part of this.
I thank both of you.
On July 11th--just an announcement for the subcommittee--we
will have Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey testifying on a second
hearing relating to our drug education and national media
campaign.
There being no further business to come before this
subcommittee, I'd like to excuse these witnesses. Thank you
again for coming forward.
The Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and
Human Resources is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:44 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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