EmergencyNet NEWS Service
Wednesday, August 7, 1996
Vol. 2 - 220
DRUG TRAFFICKING HOTSPOT: EAGLE PASS, TEXAS
By Steve Macko, ENN Editor
Walk along a portion of the Rio Grande River, that separates Mexico from the Texas border, and you'll find
discarded clothes, plastic garbage bags strewn around, and deflated inner tubes. Just garbage left by litterbugs?
Think again -- what it really signifies is debris left behind by drug smugglers who cross the border from Mexico.
U.S. federal agents say the smugglers are increasingly crossing the border and are becoming more brazen and
more violent. U.S. residents in the area of Eagle Pass, Texas, are becoming more frightened by the situation and
are now getting the attention of top anti-drug officers.
Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey is the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In
describing the situation at Eagle Pass, the General said, "It has gotten immeasurably worse in the last year and
we are determined to play hardball with international drug criminals."
In early July, McCaffrey, along with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin,
attended a national anti-drug summit with hundreds of other law enforcement officials. McCaffrey told the
meeting that they should prepare for a long-term fight with the drug traffickers. He said that to ensure success,
the U.S. must put together a long-term budget rather then shaping a new budget for the battle every year.
Before attending the Southwest Border Counterdrug Conference in El Paso last month, General McCaffrey and
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Director Thomas Constantine visited Eagle Pass, now called a drug
trafficking hotspot. The two men met privately with area ranchers who said that the smuggling on their property
has increased in the last five years.
McCaffrey said, "It's an intimidating environment with gangs of twenty to forty people crossing the river ... at
night, carrying automatic weapons with massive drug smuggling -- heroin, cocaine, marijuana." The General said
that many of the ranchers are considering selling their property. And there's no trouble finding buyers -- that's
because the drug smugglers are interested in purchasing.
Jim Collier, the Special-Agent-In-Charge of the DEA's field office in San Antonio, which covers Eagle Pass,
said that ever since the successful U.S. crackdowns in Florida and in the Caribbean, seventy percent of all
illegal drugs now come through Mexico. Drug seizures in the Eagle Pass area have increased by about 33
percent in 1996. Most of the seizures involve marijuana.
General McCaffrey says that one way to crack down on the smugglers is to work closely with Mexicans
officials while increasing technology and manpower along the border. The U.S. hopes to deploy an additional
1,500 additional agents along the Southwest border in 1997.
As for working with Mexico to solve the problem, the U.S. StateDepartment is asked about Mexican
cooperation in anti-drug operations are a regular basis. The State Department has been saying that they very
pleased with the level of cooperation from Mexican authorities, but do acknowledge that there is still some
corruption among some Mexican officials. Both the United States and Mexico are said to be trying very hard to
rectify this problem.
(c) EmergencyNet News Service, 1996, All Rights Reserved.