| Traffic - The Real Drug Deal | |
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In the movie Traffic, actor Michael Douglas plays Robert Wakefield, a newly appointed U.S. "Drug Czar" fighting to stop massive quantities of illegal drugs from being smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico. Turns out that much of the smuggled drugs are ending up inside the Drug Czar's daughter, who is angry about being rich, but that's Hollywood for you.
Pure fiction? Does Hollywood grab for dramatic effect by inflating the magnitude of illegal drug flow into the United States? And, how is the "War On Drugs" going, these days?
The following factual seizures were reported by U.S. Customs and Coast Guard officials during just the last 20 days of January, 2001.
4,956 Pounds - Marijuana: Seized on Jan. 30, 2001, by U.S. Customs Service inspectors working at the Ysleta cargo facility at the El Paso, Texas port of entry. Hidden on a tractor-trailer truck, the marijuana was contained in 62 cardboard boxes mixed with a shipment of office supplies. The contraband was detected by X-ray inspection.
2,939 Pounds - Marijuana: Seized on Jan. 29, 2001, by U.S. Customs inspectors at the World Trade Bridge near Laredo, Texas. In this tractor-trailer truck, 22 duffle bags of marijuana were concealed among a shipment of automobile wiring harnesses. The contraband was detected by Canine "Trixie."
5,272 Pounds - Marijuana: Seized on Jan. 24, 2001, by U.S. Customs Service inspectors working at the Mariposa cargo facility in Nogales, Arizona. The marijuana, with an estimated street value of $5,272,000, was found in 70 cardboard boxes loaded on a tractor-trailer truck. No attempt had been made to conceal the drugs among legitimate cargo and a drug dog quickly altered to the truck.
1,100 Pounds - Cocaine: Seized on Jan. 23, 2001, by the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Thetis 115 miles south of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The cocaine was found packed inside empty fuel tanks aboard the Moby Dick, a 53-foot sailboat. The cutter Thetis is a 270-foot medium endurance cutter based in Key West, Fla.
1,876 Pounds - Marijuana: Seized on Jan. 19, 2001, by U.S. Customs Service special agents and officers of the Cochise County, Arizona Sheriff’s Department Border Alliance Group. In this violent seizure, an officer was injured when the smugglers rammed their truck through a roadblock.
106 Pounds - Cocaine: Seized during the week of Jan. 11-18, 2001, by U.S. Customs Service inspectors, special agents, and canine enforcement officers in El Paso, Texas and New Mexico. Taken in two separate seizures, the cocaine was concealed in passenger vehicles and detected by Canines "Allie" and "Chigo."
During a 7-day period ending on Jan. 18, 2001, Customs officers in West Texas and New Mexico confiscated over 2,777 pounds of marijuana in 38 separate seizures.
Over the entire month of January, 2001, the Customs Service and Coast Guard alone seized over 16,280 pounds (8.41 tons) of smuggled marijuana and over 1,383 pounds of cocaine.
Do these huge
seizures, over such a short period, indicate that American forces are winning
the War on Drugs? Next page > Statistics from the War on Drugs > Page
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