Highway Smuggling Interdiction - Research Paper Example

Highway Drug Interdiction Drug interdiction on the highway is a phenomenon particularly lucrative for law enforcement forces because of the high returns it promises in case of a bust. However, the process has gotten exponentially riskier since interdiction was established in the 1970s and 1980s among law enforcement officers because today, the average smuggler carries much more than just a large quantity of narcotics. An interdiction officer today must therefore be prepared to face human traffickers who traffic sex trade and immigrants, and weapon smugglers who might be smuggling conventional weapons or weapons of mass destruction and identity thieves carrying illegal documents including ID cards, credit cards, counterfeit documents and laptops containing incriminating information across the country. (Hawkes, Andrew. Highway interdiction: It is not just about drugs anymore.) With the higher risk involved, when a drug smuggler is pulled over he/she is at the end of their nerves and may in the heat of the moment end up shooting at the officer. Due to this, many officers have lost their lives pursuing to interdict drug smugglers on the highway. Nevertheless, many more officials of law enforcement officers like police officials on the highway remain highly interested in a drugs bust because of the high return for the high risk involved. Highway drug interdiction is actually much more exciting than it sounds. According to Brad J. Williams, an attorney at the Law Offices of Bennett & Williams in Conway, Arkansas, it sounds like a fancy military maneuver. This is partly true, or in any case closer to the truth. The military does not need to worry about an ulterior motive when pulling over a vehicle in the war zone and neither do the officials of the police department. However, it is not legal to have an ulterior motive when the police officer makes the actual arrest. Keep in mind that sometimes suspects stopped under ulterior motives may turn out carrying contraband and then can be lawfully charged and arrested on the charges of drug trafficking. As drug smuggling becomes more and more common and drug interdiction officers become more and more alert and watchful of the situation, drug smugglers have come up with newer ways to pass under the vigilant eyes of law enforcement officials. If officers familiarize themselves with these techniques, they can have a higher successful interdiction rate. One telltale sign is the apparent and excessive masking of odors. Give away signs can be multiple bottles of cologne lying around, multiple bottles of air freshener, hanging ‘Christmas tree’ air fresheners, scented pipe tobacco, car filled with cigarette smoke to mask other odors. However, some smugglers go beyond these techniques and use animal urine, cayenne pepper, mustard, animal blood, oil and similar substances that throw off, confuse or frighten sniffer dogs so that their contraband remains concealed. Another give away is the excessive usage of law enforcement friendly stickers on the vehicle and religious paraphernalia. Smugglers sometimes use law enforcement stickers and slogans to appear officer friendly and stay under the radar. The same goes for religious bumper stickers, symbols and religious books etcetera placed strategically in the car to throw off interdiction officers. A third sign is that the car is not owned but rented, this has been the oldest telltale sign because smugglers don’t like to leave a trail behind them and vehicles owned can easily be used to trace the owners. In case of stopping a suspicious rented vehicle, the officer can call the rental agency, which will normally ask the police to impound the car until they pick it up. This gives the officer time and a reason to inventory the vehicle and check for possible contraband. Another sign is the discovery of tools in the car that may be used to access places where the drugs are hidden. Smugglers go to great lengths to hide their contraband and therefore have to go to greater lengths to retrieve it. Officers should keep a lookout for obvious tools of this sort lying around, that an ordinary driver would not normally carry. Furthermore, multiple cell phones and conflicting stories among passengers of the concerned car are important indicators. Multiple smugglers in one car will often not even know each other’s names and will seldom have reconciled stories, caught off guard the officers have a good chance of finding a loophole in the separate stories and use them to their advantage. In addition, carrying multiple cell phones is not a normal practice however; smugglers may carry them because each one is for a different purpose. One will be the personal cell phone, another may be given at the origin, one for the destination and several cell phones for the intermediaries involved. With probable cause, the interdiction officer can check these cell phones for incriminating evidence. A car carrying contraband will never go over the speed limit for fear of being stopped by an officer and being checked. Officers should however be wary for cars going under the speed limit, for drug traffickers in their paranoia over do measures taken to escape the radar. (Hawkes, Andrew. 10 Common Indicators for Highway Drug Interdiction, 2010). Another bunch of sample factors that courts have accepted to support reasonable suspicion of illegal drug activity include extreme nervousness, implausible traffic plans, conflicting explanations, criminal history, rented vehicles, hidden compartments etc. (Mathew Wallin, 2009.) Drug smugglers have become more and more daring as the sentences that have to be served for drug trafficking grow smaller. However, there has also been a reported increase in the number of arrests made for drug trafficking. According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol, there has been a substantial increase in the number of arrests for drug smuggling in recent months. Much of the NDHP’s success comes from specialized training combined with cooperative efforts between different law enforcement agencies. Traffic enforcement has increased traffic safety as well as ensured that crime and criminal activity are stopped. The troopers are not doing much differently, except staying more vigilant and wary for subtle clues. Furthermore, they have employed a K-9 program that enhances interdiction success. (drug Trafficking Arrests Increase, NDHP., 2010) Another article describes the arrest of drug traffickers carrying 51lbs of cocaine and 2lbs of heroin near California on Feb 28, 2012. The smugglers were taken into custody and their vehicles were seized after the drugs were busted. (Agents Arrest Drug Smugglers Near Temecula, Retrieve 51 lbs of Cocaine, 2 lbs of Heroin.) There are also several practices officers should avoid. These include focusing on violations and not indicators; this diverts their attention from traffickers and lets them slip by easily. Second, unsuccessful interdiction officers tend to waste time charging citizens for minor violations while the bigger fish swim by unnoticed. Third, they are unable to establish a rapport with the subject; inability to initiate small talk prevents the suspect to lower his/her guard and decreases chances of incriminating slip-ups. Further, they fail to establish proper vehicle search patterns, this wastes a lot of time and results in overlooking of critical places. Next, unsuccessful officers tend to get easily discouraged when they find no dope, however they should always remember patience and persistence is key. Another common habit is that these officials tend to overlook an attitude refusal and mistake it for dope refusals, which ends up wasting a lot of time. Last habit of an unsuccessful interdiction officer is that he/she are too relaxed in officer safety. They must remember to be vigilant and wary of any tricks the subject might spring on them. (Andrew Hawkes, 7 Bad Habits of Unsuccessful Highway Drug Interdiction Officers, 2007) Teams of officers are forever working to better their interdiction technique by involving themselves in training and hiring detection dogs. Numerous such officers, giving information and insight on how to be more successful at highway drug interdictions, have set up various websites and blogs. One example of such a website is “Interdiction Weekly” (Web URL: http://highwaydruginterdiction.com/) which is run by Sergeant Andrew Hawkes. This website boasts Hawkes’ success stories and advertises his book on the subject and the fact that he is available to deliver courses to law enforcement agencies on drug interdiction, hoping to interest interdiction officers aiming to achieve similar success in the field. Other websites like “Highway Interdiction Training Specialists” offer to provide quality training to law enforcement officials for higher rates of successful interdiction. Some of the many courses for training listed on the website are Advanced Roadside Interview Techniques for Patrol Officers, Advanced Vehicle Contraband Concealment (Phase I and II), Checkpoint / Port of Entry Contraband Detection Course, Criminal Patrol / Drug Interdiction, CT-30 Contraband Detection Kit Certification etcetera. There are also several websites owned by people who support the drug traffickers and supply information and tactics to help traffickers effectively evade interdiction officers. Barry Cooper is one of these particular people with the aim to aid smugglers and traffickers. He has recently signed a film with Hollywood giant, Bret Ratner who is producing a feature film about Barry’s life. He was hired as an expert witness/case consultant in several cases including United States vs. Torez 2006, California vs. Nicholson 2010, and United States vs. Wheeler 2011 etcetera. Barry has also lectured at numerous universities across the U.S including at Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Association (Houston, Texas) 2009 and Public Defender’s Association (Clearwater, Florida) 2010. He ran for political office twic4e, once in 2008 and then in 2010 and has had plentiful media appearances. Once an interdiction officer himself, Barry has long left that road for another one in a completely different direction, because of a change in mindset and agenda. Barry Cooper’s website for one, boasts a map of the United States of America with markers placed on areas where smugglers are most likely to be interdicted. Following the map are several tips and tricks to elude interdiction and personal experiences posted by readers to help others in similar situations. It also provides a link to purchase Barry’s book on the subject, which fans and felons alike will be interested in. (Barry, Cooper. Never Get Busted.) There is also a diverse collection of blog posts and forums online, where people discuss dilemmas of drug trafficking anonymously or under false identities. Concentrating mostly on tactics that will help them escape interdiction officers. These are informal communication threads; however, they are most valuable for smugglers and traffickers because this is where they can pick up tips and tricks to dodge the law enforcement radar. These stories discuss personal situations with respect to interdiction of drugs and various areas, officers, methods and dos and don’ts. (thesamba.com) Similar blogs and forums have been set up by the law enforcement agencies whose officers carry on informal public discussion threads on the best interdiction methods and practices and share tips and tricks of successful drug interdiction. In addition to success tips, forums like these promote a sense of community among interdiction officers and help motivate them by the sharing of success stories and the high rewards that come along with. (Police Link) Forums like these provide links to other training websites where officers can enroll, for example Desert Snow, Black Asphalt and Road Warrior that boast criminal and terrorist identification and apprehension training. The public website for Desert Snow brags of the Roadside ‘Echo Test’, which was developed to give officers a quick and professional method to identify contraband among many other useful services relevant to drug interdiction officers. Law firms are also major stakeholders in drug interdiction situations, because they tend to make a lot of money in settlements of such cases. Law firms provide defense to citizens charged for drug crimes, these firms claim that the police stop and charge citizens on the grounds of revenue generation rather than the agenda of stopping the drug trade. These law firms also advocate the citizens’ right to not be stopped and searched without probable cause and against racial profiling and targeting. (Rob McKinney, Attorney at Law.) Another reason that law firms stick up for citizens charged with drug trafficking is that law enforcement officers rely heavily on racial profiling which is discriminatory and insulting and oftentimes results in the undue harassment of innocent individuals just because they belong to a particular race. The debate over racial profiling has become a central topic between the police and ethnicities of color. Racial profiling first became associated with drug interdiction in the 1970s. in some cases the profiling technique turned out flawed and officials began targeting black and Hispanic men as suspects for drug trade. In 1998, U.S department of justice brought the issue under light and speculation and raised awareness about the issue. Since then the police department has begun to analyze its own activities and higher levels of accountability have been demanded from law enforcement agencies. In a Gallup poll released towards the end of 1999, it showed that half of those polled believed that the police were engaged in racial profiling and more importantly, 81% said they disapproved of the practice. (History of Racial Profiling Analysis, 2003) In an article about why ‘Racial Profiling is a Bad Idea’, we see seven arguments against the practice of racial profiling. First, it talks about how racial profiling does not work. Second, it elaborates by saying that racial profiling distracts law enforcement agencies from more useful and result oriented approaches. Third, it says that racial profiling prevents law enforcement agencies from being of service to the entire community because it introduces a bias against certain ethnicities in the community. Fourth, it talks about how it prevents communities from working with law enforcement for the betterment of the community because due to the bias of law enforcement against certain ethnicities, those ethnic groups harbor a feeling of ill will against law enforcement which leads to noncooperation from their part. Fifth, it tells us how racial profiling is an outright violation of the 14th amendment because it is based on unequal protection according to race and ethnicity. Sixth, it explains how this practice can escalate into ethnic violence, which is disruptive for normal life and destructive for the economy. Seventh and last, it says that racial profiling is morally wrong because it creates segregation on racial lines and creates second-class citizenship for colored races when in effect all citizens are equal by law. (Tom Head, Why Racial Profiling is a Bad Idea.) According to the Fact Sheet provided by the U.S Department of Justice in 2003, racial profiling is deemed wrong and something that will not be tolerated. It states that America has a moral obligation to stop racial profiling because it is harmful for a diverse democracy. An end should be put to it because it severely damages the image of the criminal justice system even when the majority of law enforcement officials are not involved in the act they are seen as collectively to be involved in racial profiling when it is actually only a small number of officers who are responsible. In sum this is a form of discrimination and taints the entire criminal justice system. Due to the seriousness of the problem, the American government has taken some steps to put an end to racial profiling. President Bush formally banned the practice, and his administration was the first to take action to ban racial profiling in the federal justice system. Stereotyping certain races was prohibited, suspicion could now not be based only on ethnic backgrounds etcetera. However, with the prohibition of racial profiling, certain other measures had to be put into place to balance the system. These included the ability of the federal law enforcement to continue terrorist identification; however, they must adhere to limitations imposed by the constitution. Finally, even in situations of national security law enforcement officers cannot rely solely on ethnic or racial stereotyping. (Racial Profiling, Fact Sheet, 2003) Contrary to the belief that these smugglers are innocent, there is considerable evidence to prove that there are powerful cartels behind these operations. These cartels transform this arena from one of rookie crime to large-scale organized crime. Mexican drug cartels have started using children as decoys with their mothers as drivers in order to sneak past checkpoints. Cartels use these innocent looking situations to exploit the fact that officers have but only a few seconds to make the decision to stop a particular vehicle and a vehicle with a mother and child is less likely to arouse suspicion and get stopped. (Angela Kocherga.) in another picture article featured on the abc news website, it shows how Mexican drug cartels transport huge amounts of contraband in thousands of 18-wheeler trucks using the highways. A recent article in The New York times, talks about how undercover American narcotics agents have laundered millions of dollars in drug proceeds. The agents handled shipments of large sums of money, to identify and track large criminal organizations and their leaders. Such operations have only started in Mexico in the past few years although they have been continuing in other areas for longer. The risk in such activities is high because law enforcement officials are pitted against criminal king=pins and the fine line between facilitating crime and surveillance blurs easily. Agents however, declined to publicly discuss the finer details of the operation saying that this would compromise the whole process. The U.S is now running numerous undercover operations against the Mexican drug cartels. Former counternarcotics officials have been more forthcoming with their information and have helped clear up the picture a bit. However it is still not clear whether undercover operations like these are worth the risk because there has only been very little evidence that Mexican cartels are being in any way halted or harmed by these operations hat are at a great cost and risk to the undercover agents behind these operations. There has been no significant dip in the volume of drugs trafficked across the country and the death toll continues to increase. (Thompson, Ginger 2011) Another article featured in The Washington Post, talks about the economic implications on the Mexican drug cartels of changing patterns in drug trade. At one time, Mexico provided the largest proportion of America’s contraband supply. Now almost half the proportion is produced domestically. The shifting economics has significant implications of Mexico’s war against its drug cartels, suggesting that market forces are powerful enough to extract a heavy price from large and powerful criminal organizations on both sides of the border. To stay competitive, Mexican carrels have stepped up their game and streamlined their supply process. Transportation of marijuana is extremely lucrative for these cartels because it lets them have the highest control over the process and yield highly satisfying profits. In response to the dramatic increase in domestic marijuana production, Mexican cartels have started using large public lands to grow marijuana. These cartels have shifted their focus eastward, after establishing sophisticated networks on the western parts of the U.S. To increase competitiveness, Mexican growers have started with greenhouse operations although the majority of the crop is still grown outdoors. Mexican cartels remain strong and elusive and U.S law enforcement agencies are having a hard time pinning them down. (Steve Fainaru and William Booth 2009) Mexican drug cartels are also profiting from weapon trade across the border. The weapons bought by Hernandez as shown in the article in ‘The Guardian’ were just a fraction of the tens of thousands smuggled across the American border. A very important part of this process is how easily the traffickers are able to obtain guns in the US, made possible in large part by the robust opposition of the powerful gun lobby to tighter laws against arms trafficking. It is just an easy and cheap place for traffickers to obtain weapons and its laws encourage weapon trafficking. It is even easier to obtain ammunition in the States, and identification is not required when purchasing ammunition, even if it is in very large quantities. Due to no barriers to entry in this arena, Mexican cartels continue to profit from the trafficking of weapons along with the usual transportation of contraband. (Chris McGreal 2011) It has also been noticed that profits from the drug trade is fuelling the drug war in Mexico. This war has claimed approximately 24000 lives, sonce the Mexican president declared war on the cartels. By an estimate, marijuana is Mexico’s biggest most profitable agricultural venture and provides its profits in billions of dollars. As a part of the war being waged on the cartels, Mexican troops are now destroying marijuana plants. However, organized crime backed by the cartels remains a hard puzzle to solve. (Jason Beaubien 2010) An investigation in June 2011 by abc Nightline reported that Mexican drug trade was looking to expand in the U.S by the tens of thousands. Cartels have boosted their supply by a whopping 59% since 2003, and marijuana smuggling is said to have been responsible for more than 35000 deaths in the last 5 years. As a part of this operation, when the U.S agents had seized the drugs, they moved them to a secret facility where the operation could no more be covered by the media. (Pierre Thomas 2011) While violence escalates in Mexico and people call it a failed state, the Mexican effort has certainly dented the drug trade of the region. Yet this disruption has revealed a new facet: the dependence of the Mexican economy on its drug trade. As law enforcement considers ways to destroy drug cartels and trade, it has to be taken into account that destruction of drug trade may adversely affect industrial and other sectors of the economy. However, most experts would agree that this trade negatively affects the Mexican economy as a net effect. “Cartels undermine the rule of law. Instability alienates current investors and deters potential investors or business-owners. Government revenues fall, as taxable commodities are replaced in the economy by illegal goods that are not taxed by the government. Tourism, one of Mexico’s most important exports, suffers: the U.S. military has officially discouraged travelers from vacationing in many parts of Mexico.” The question is how to keep the economy in the area stable while combating to destroy drug trade. It has been noted that the effects of the destruction of drug trade on the economy will be different according to the combat technique chosen. However, it should be kept in mind that the fall of these cartels will not be easy. In addition, the government should prioritize growth and stability of the economy before anything else. (Colin Gray 2010) Columbian cartels have also played a major role in the American drug trade and trafficking. What started as a small cocaine trade has turned into an intimidating multimillion-dollar business. Columbian traffickers are armed with large amounts of capital and hence superior technology that helps them evade interdiction. Some prominent Columbian Cartels were the Medellin Cartel and the Cali Cartel. Today, after the destruction of both these cartels, the cocaine business has begun to fragment. However, cocaine continues to be shipped internationally and yield drug dealers extremely high profits. (Frontline, drug wars) Based on thorough research, it can be concluded that Central America is playing an emerging and growing role in the drug trade business. According to the information gathered by STRATFOR with respect to the security situation and war waged on drug cartels in Mexico, it has been observed that there have been some very significant developments in the drug trade in the Western Hemisphere. These changes and developments have been mostly noticed in Central America where Mexican drug cartels smuggle contraband through land routes. The effects of these changes are deep reaching. In Dec 2008, drug traffic through Central America was approximately 1% of the 700 tonne quota, however by Mar 2009 this amount had increased many fold to about 400 tonnes per year. With increased security in airborne and maritime routes, Central America has evolved into a significant land route for drug smuggling. With the increased flow of drug trade through the area, law enforcement of countries like Columbia stepped up their security measures. There are numerous drug trafficking organizations that are currently operation in Central America; however, arrest records show that no single Mexican cartel has monopoly over the drug trade in the region. It has also been seen that locals are also involved in various stages of the smuggling process. Guatemala is one exception where Mexican drug cartels have complete monopoly and the Sinaloa cartel was observed to have increased its presence in the area since 2008. However, things remain in a state of war like unrest because of the rivalry between the Zeta and the Sinaloa and the resulting bloodshed. Despite these concerns, drug related violence in Central America has not peaked dangerously. This can be attributed to several factors; first due to the absence of large-scale anti-narcotics measures seizures of contraband in the area have remained low and have therefore not elicited a dangerous reaction from the Mexican cartels. Secondly, the drug traffickers rely heavily on bribes than intimidation to secure transit of shipments and escape arrest. Finally, even though the strategic importance of Central America has increased, Mexicans have enough to handle back home in Mexico where they are engaged in a two-front war from which they cannot divert too many resources right now. However, there is no guarantee that Central America will keep avoiding the fury of Mexican drug lords and cartels. But there may on the other hand be reason to believe that it will soon come under fire from the Mexican side. For one, the U.S anti-drug aid program will pour billions of dollars into the law enforcement system to help it better combat the Mexican traffickers. In addition, this might be seen as the Mexicans as a potent threat. Mexican criminal kingpins and drug lords may even resort to an assassination campaign against U.S government officials in the area for this will be an effective measure without diverting too many resources from the war back home. (Stephen Meiners 2008) Works Cited 1. suspect, stander helps Texas cop take down. "Highway interdiction: It's not just about drugs anymore." Police Officers, Cops & Law Enforcement | PoliceOne. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2012. . 2. 10 Common Indicators for Highway Drug Interdiction - International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums." Home - - International Cannagraphic Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2012. . 3. way, the, and I. "Highway Drug Interdiction - Secrets of Successful Drug Interdiction Revealed." Highway Drug Interdiction - Secrets of Successful Drug Interdiction Revealed. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2012. . 4. "Highway Interdiction Training Specialists." Highway Interdiction Training Specialists. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2012. . 5. " Drug stops." 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