[Sativa]

TUCSON, Ariz. - In a year of ongoing drought, grass has been greener in Arizona - for law enforcement agencies. They're having a bountiful year harvesting marijuana loads from smugglers.

According to a program that coordinates drug control efforts, there has been a 25 percent jump in the state in the number of reported pot seizures from Oct. 1 through April 30 over the same period a year earlier.

Figures from the Southwest Border High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area show that all law enforcement organizations in Arizona seized 676,856 pounds of marijuana over those seven months, compared to 540,376 pounds for the corresponding period of the previous federal fiscal year. They also nabbed more than 900,000 pounds during all of fiscal 2006, which ended Sept. 30.

In fact, pot seizures are up across the Southwest, except for New Mexico, so far this fiscal year. Seizures in west and south Texas have shot up by 54 percent and have increased 14 percent in California.


So why have seizures soared?

‘‘We've added quite a few agents, we've increased our technology and added eyes and ears due to the National Guard's presence'' on the border, said Gustavo Soto, spokesman for the patrol's Tucson sector, which covers all the Arizona-Mexico border except an area around Yuma.

Though apprehensions of illegal immigrants have decreased because of more deterrence, narcotics smugglers aren't as easily deterred, Soto said. ‘‘They're more intent on bringing in their illicit cargo. We're just having more and more success.''

The sector's seizures increased 42 percent from October through April over the same period last year and were only 50,000 pounds less than the 616,000 pounds captured in the full fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That total was estimated to be worth nearly a half-billion dollars on the street, Soto said.

But Tony Coulson, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Tucson, said it's not quite clear why seizures are up.

‘‘Does it mean there is more available? I can't tell you that. All I can tell you is we're seizing more,'' Coulson said. ‘‘I can't say if it's the effect of more Border Patrol agents, or of better targeting.

Coulson also said authorities don't know how much marijuana their agents and officers are not catching. ‘‘No one can tell you what that figure is, because we don't know how much is produced.''



News Hawk- User http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: Mojave Daily News
Author: ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Contact: Mohave Daily News: Front
Copyright: Tri-State Online
Website: Mohave Daily News: Nation