Pot, heroin seizures down, but cocaine up

DAVID L. TEIBEL

Published: 04.11.2008

Drug seizures by U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector are mostly down over the past six months, which is the first half of the federal fiscal year.

Compared with the same period last fiscal year, seizures dropped as much as 21 percent for heroin and nearly 11 percent for marijuana, according to figures released Thursday by the Border Patrol.

The figures from the Border Patrol cover the periods of Oct. 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007 and Oct. 1 to March 31.

The Tucson Sector covers the entire state except for Yuma, La Paz and Mohave counties.

The only drug seizures showing an increase in the Tucson Sector, the busiest sector along the Mexico border, was cocaine, which went up 56 percent.

Border Patrol Agent Michael Scioli, a Tucson Sector spokesman, said cocaine seizures have gone up in part because a permanent checkpoint was set up this year along Interstate 19 and U.S. Customs and Immigration officers have been helping with vehicle inspections and training Border Patrol agents how to spot drugs. The Border Patrol also has increased the number of agents in the sector and has been making greater use of drug-sniffing dogs, Scioli said.

Methamphetamine seizures dropped 97 percent. Scioli said that is hard to explain as "we don't see a lot of that coming across the border. You can make that here."