[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 7 (Thursday, February 5, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S419-S421]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            DROP IN COCAINE SEIZURES ON THE SOUTHWEST BORDER

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, Congress has increased the priority of 
the war on drugs in recent years. We've allocated nearly $300 million 
in additional funds to the U.S. Customs Service since 1996.
  And I think all of us know that the Southwest Border is still, 
without question, ground zero in U.S. drug interdiction efforts, with 
more than 70% of the cocaine and other narcotics entering this country 
across the 2,000 mile stretch of border between our country and Mexico.
  To meet this threat Congress authorized more than $100 million over 
the last two years to add 650 inspectors and employ state of the art 
technologies along the Southwest border. The President's budget in 
fiscal year 1999 calls for an additional $104 million for Southwest 
Border narcotics efforts.
  So you can imagine my surprise when I opened yesterday's edition of 
the Los Angeles Times to read the following:

       The amount of cocaine seized at the commercial ports of 
     entry along the U.S./Mexico border plummeted 84% in 1997, 
     forcing U.S. Customs Service officials to develop a new drug 
     fighting strategy and leaving them concerned about a backlash 
     in Congress.

  Well, Mr. President there is a backlash from this United States 
Senator because for five and a half years now I have sounded a constant 
drumbeat on Treasury and on Customs to stop the mixed missions of the 
Customs Department and understand that there is a major problem with 
cocaine coming across the Southwest Border. Frankly an 84% drop in 
seizures last year indicates that all of the money and all of the 
personnel we have been pumping in has simply not done the job. 84% at 
the Southwest border, and cocaine seizures are down 15% across the 
nation.
  If someone could tell me the reason for the drop is because, overall, 
there is less cocaine coming into the country--I'd say, 
congratulations, our efforts have been successful.
  But that doesn't appear to be the case. Narcotics intelligence 
officials continue to warn that an estimated 5 to 7 tons of cocaine 
enters this country every single day of the year. We are just not 
getting it.
  If someone could tell me that the drop along the Southwest Border is 
because our efforts have been so successful, that the drug smugglers 
are going elsewhere--I'd say bravo, the taxpayers' money has been well 
spent.
  But, again, that does not appear to be the case. Customs officials 
are widely quoted in news reports saying the problem is that the drug 
traffickers continue to stay two steps ahead of our interdiction 
efforts. And in fact, that is the case.

[[Page S420]]

  Let me again quote from this article:

       Customs officials received a warning in June 1997 that 
     portions of the agency's enforcement strategy at the ports 
     had been compromised. A June 20, 1997 memo from Assistant 
     Commissioner Robert S. Trotter to all Southwest border port 
     directors warned that ``traffickers have developed detailed 
     knowledge and profiles of our port operations''.

  More than once, Customs officials have come into my office to tell me 
that--not only is it not possible to increase inspection of trucks and 
cars entering our border, obviously because there are so many of them--
it is not really necessary, because today we are applying sophisticated 
technology, including electronic technology, random searches, and 
Customs' vast intelligence operations and all of that combined is 
enough to do the job.
  Four years ago I went and spent a day at the Otay Mesa port at the 
Southwest border. I observed, directly adjacent to our Customs 
facilities, ``spotters'' who are individuals standing out on the street 
with radios and cellular telephones. I then went up to a hill 
overlooking the Customs facility and I watched the spotters work. They 
get on their phones and they talk to the trucks waiting to cross the 
border and they direct the trucks as to which lines they should be in 
to get through the border.

  I mentioned this at the highest levels of the Treasury, both verbally 
and in writing. I said that we must do something about the spotters. 
Four years later, the spotters are still there, they are still 
operational. I am told that there is no law under which we can do 
anything about it. Unfortunately, at no time has Customs come forward 
in this four year period with any recommendations for any laws to be 
passed to deter this activity which is almost certainly an illegal 
conspiracy to bring cocaine into this country across the Southwest 
border.
  The ``random'' searches that I have heard so much about are supposed 
to keep traffickers trembling in their big-rigs. But they have become 
so predictable that, by Customs' own admission, ``traffickers know what 
cargo, conveyances, or passengers we inspect, how many of those 
conveyances are checked on an average day, what lanes we work harder, 
and what lanes are more accessible for smuggling.''
  Now, Mr. President, I am not insensitive to how difficult this task 
is, and I want to commend the extremely hard working men and women of 
the United States Customs Service. I know many of them personally. I 
know they work hard. I know they try to do their job. They put on those 
uniforms every day, they inhale all of these exhaust fumes, and they 
try to keep up with what has been a massive increase in traffic coming 
across the border.
  But, Mr. President, I do not like to be told how effective our 
intelligence is, and how sophisticated our technology is, and how tough 
our enforcement efforts are--and then read reports in the newspaper 
from Customs' officials about how easily the traffickers are walking 
all over us.
  I do appreciate the candor from Acting Commissioner Sam Banks on the 
weaknesses in our efforts. And I understand that Customs is moving very 
rapidly to counter this 84% drop in seizures with a new operation 
entitled ``Operation Brass Ring''. They clearly know that what they are 
doing is insufficient.
  For some time, I have believed that the mixed mission given by the 
Administration to the United States Customs Service creates a situation 
whereby the law enforcement functions of the United States Customs 
Service cannot be carried out properly.
  You cannot run an agency with a mixed mission, especially a mission 
that has the kind of a diametrically different goals that Customs 
faces. Move the trucks by the millions, just do random searches, depend 
only on technology, and avoid statistics like the one that just 
appeared in the Los Angeles Times with an 84% drop in seizures in 
cocaine coming across the Southwest border.
  I have urged the Administration to appoint a law enforcement person 
as the new Commissioner of Customs. I am heartened to understand that 
the Administration has just signed off on the appointment of Ray Kelly 
as the new Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service.
  I have worked with Mr. Kelly over the past few years as he has been 
the Secretary for Enforcement in the Treasury Department. I believe he 
is a straight shooter. He is a law enforcement person. He has an 
exemplary background. I hope that he will be able to redirect the 
Customs Service to understand that they do have a law enforcement 
mission. And, in fact, that that mission is to deter contraband from 
coming across the border of the United States.
  We also know, Mr. President, that guns in large supply are moving 
from this country down to Mexico. These guns are used for two purposes. 
One is to give them to the cartels for their use and the second is for 
revolutionary insurrection against the government of Mexico.
  I believe that the work of the United States Customs is really cut 
out for them. In the best of all worlds, trade will continue to 
increase across the Southwest Border, providing jobs and income for 
those on both sides of the border.
  But if we are serious about the drug threat--as we say we are--we 
must demand that the law enforcement functions of deterring contraband 
be made the highest mission of the United States Customs Service.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an article entitled 
``Drop in Drug Seizures Worries U.S. Customs'' be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Los Angeles Times, Feb. 4, 1998]

               Drop in Drug Seizures Worries U.S. Customs

                             (By H.G. Reza)

       San Diego--The amount of cocaine seized at the commercial 
     ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border plummeted 84% in 
     1997, forcing U.S. Customs Service officials to develop a new 
     drug-fighting strategy and leaving them concerned about a 
     backlash in Congress.
       Bill Heffelsinger, assistant to acting customs Commissioner 
     Samuel H. Banks, said Tuesday that inspectors working at the 
     high-risk commercial ports on the Southwest border 
     confiscated 2,383 pounds of cocaine last year, compared to 
     15,114 pounds in 1996.
       Nationwide, the quantity of cocaine seized by the agency 
     dropped 15% last year to 159,475 pounds, compared to 187,947 
     pounds in 1996, Heffelsinger added. The total number of 
     seizures by customs agents and inspectors of all kinds of 
     drugs was a record 26,240 nationwide last year, authorities 
     said.
       Acting Commissioner Banks, in an interview Tuesday, said 
     the drop in cocaine seizures is worrisome. ``You look at 
     those numbers and you want to be your own worst critic,'' 
     Banks said. ``You're going to be asked questions on [Capitol] 
     Hill, and we have to provide answers [for how to stop the 
     flow of drugs].''
       Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) said Tuesday he was 
     disappointed by customs' failure to seize more cocaine at the 
     commercial ports.
       ``Congress has directed almost every possible resource 
     toward drug interdiction efforts, including more agents, 
     better technology and several hundred million dollars in 
     additional funding,'' said Packard. ``These are not the 
     results we expected. If interdiction is down, the American 
     people deserve some answers.''
       Customs officials hope to find answers through Operation 
     Brass Ring, a new nationwide drug interdiction strategy 
     launched by the agency this week. Officials said the 
     operation is part of a broader five-year program by the 
     Office of National Drug Control Policy to reduce by 50% the 
     amount of illegal drugs entering the country and, according 
     to a news release, ``was designed almost entirely in the 
     field by . . . inspectors, investigators and union 
     representatives.''
       Memos obtained by The Times show that the new strategy 
     comes at a time of concern among customs union officials over 
     possible political repercussions resulting from the drop in 
     the amount of cocaine caught at the commercial ports.
       A Nov. 28, 1997, National Treasury Employees Union memo 
     noted that Congress had authorized $64 million in funding in 
     1997 for 657 new enforcement positions along the Southwest 
     border as part of Operation Hard Line, the drug interdiction 
     plan in effect at the time.
       Hard Line was launched in 1995 after The Times reported 
     that there had been virtually no cocaine seizures at the 
     biggest commercial ports on the U.S.-Mexico border, where 
     thousands of trucks cross daily.
       The union memo predicted that ``no doubt Congress will be 
     highly upset with these [1997] figures . . . border drug 
     interdiction is becoming a major political issue in 
     Washington.''
       Another union memo on Dec. 22 said new ``enforcement 
     operations'' were needed and urged inspectors to be flexible 
     and imaginative in their approach to drug interdiction.
       ``The objective being to increase our seizures so customs 
     and [the union] don't get their heads handed to them by the 
     politicians in Washington when the budget meetings start in 
     March,'' the memo said.

[[Page S421]]

       Robert Tobias, president of the employees union, said he 
     would not apologize for the blunt talk in the memos.
       ``This was me doing my job as president to inform [members] 
     what the stakes are,'' said Tobias. ``There's nothing wrong 
     with telling people that if you don't get off your duff 
     you're in danger of losing your job. Brass Ring is a wake-up 
     call to all of us involved in fighting drugs.''
       On Tuesday, Banks said he was pleased that the president's 
     proposed customs operating budget for 1999, publicly 
     announced Tuesday, was $1.8 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 
     1998. That budget must still be approved by Congress.
       Banks said he was willing to publicly admit some of the 
     agency's enforcement problems ``so we can get the issue out 
     there, even if it's critical to us.''
       ``I'm willing to take it on the chin if necessary to get 
     the message out, so we can focus on the drug problem,'' said 
     Banks. ``I want to get the message out to the American public 
     so they can deal with it in the community and in schools.''
       Banks said Brass Ring will ``dramatically increase drug 
     seizures'' at the 24 points of entry on the U.S.-Mexico 
     border.
       ``The push for Brass Ring is to turn up the heat internally 
     and get people focused. We're trying to get people focused. 
     We're trying to put the heat on ourselves,'' Banks said.
       A Nov. 28, 1997, report by the union said that 
     ``intelligence sources are reporting that 5 to 7 tons of 
     illegal drugs are being smuggled from Mexico to the U.S. 
     every day.''
       In the interview Tuesday, Banks said he does not dispute 
     the union's figures.
       Concern over the declining cocaine interdiction figures 
     arose in September, when Banks reported in a memo to customs 
     employees that he had met with Gen. Barry McCaffrey, head of 
     the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The Sept. 18, 
     1997, memo said that ``we were asked some tough questions 
     about the effectiveness of our various operations, and we did 
     not always have convincing answers.''
       Heffelsinger said the biggest problem in customs' 
     interdiction plan had been its predictability.
       In 1997, 3.5 million trucks and rail cars crossed into the 
     United States from Mexico at the commercial ports along the 
     border from Texas to California and about 30% were inspected 
     for narcotics, customs officials said. An equal number of 
     trucks and rail cars crossed in 1996, and 25% were inspected 
     for drugs that year, they added.
       However, ``we aren't as unpredictable as we would like to 
     be. The goal of Brass Ring is to get back to being 
     unpredictable,'' Heffelsinger said.
       Customs officials received a warning in June 1997 that 
     portions of the agency's enforcement strategy at the ports 
     had been compromised. A June 20, 1997, memo from Assistant 
     Commissioner Robert S. Trotter to all Southwest border port 
     directors warned that ``traffickers have developed detailed 
     knowledge and profiles of our port operations.''
       Trotter said that spotters, commonly used by drug rings to 
     warn of enforcement activity at the ports, ``have determined 
     what cargo, conveyance or passengers we inspect, how many of 
     those conveyances are checked on an average day, what lanes 
     we work harder and what lanes are more accessible for 
     smuggling.''
       Banks acknowledged that customs has still not learned how 
     to defeat the spotters, who work in the open on the U.S. side 
     at the gates to the commercial ports.
       ``There's no question that people are sitting at the ports, 
     shepherding loads and acting as guides,'' said Banks. ``We're 
     trying to turn the tables on them and use them against 
     themselves. Counter surveillance is part of [the Brass Ring 
     strategy], but I can't say more.''

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I thank the President, and I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brownback). The Senator's time has 
expired. Under a previous unanimous consent agreement, the Senator from 
West Virginia is recognized.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the Chair, and I, again, thank the 
distinguished senior Senator from California for her usual 
characteristic courtesy.

                          ____________________