Saturday's Internet Edition, September 04, 2010.
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The federal report says the area is ideal for the distribution of illegal drugs because of its central geographic location and easy access provided by freeways, airports and railroads.
The drug “threat assessment report” by HIDTA found that a new concern to some federal and local law enforcement agencies is the railways. The report said Amtrak's plans for a Dallas-to-New York route next year will be an opportunity for drug traffickers.
“It's a challenge that I think we're probably not being successful with, given the magnitude of the problem,” said John Brown, Dallas special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “Drug dealers are very dynamic, and they use any means they can. So if Amtrak has a route from a good transportation hub like Dallas to anyplace in the Northeast, they'll jump on the opportunity.”
Officials with Amtrak and other railroads said trains are an inconvenient method of smuggling and that railroad police control the situation.
HIDTA, funded by Congress in 1999, is one of 33 multiagency drug task forces that Congress set up across the country to fight the drug war. The report was produced for internal use by its 38 member law enforcement agencies.
Tractor-trailer rigs and personal vehicles remained the primary transportation used by drug traffickers. Increased quantities of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine were moved from Mexico through Dallas to supply the Midwest and Northeast along interstates 30, 35, 45 and 20.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field, with increasing freight and passenger services, also served smugglers in 2000.
Dave Israelson, director of the North Texas HIDTA, said rail smuggling is much less common than smuggling by trailer trucks or personal vehicles.
Besides Amtrak's plans to create a Dallas-to-New York route next year, the Mexican government also is privatizing its railroads and rail trade through Texas under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, federal officials in Dallas said.
Wayne Frandsen, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Customs Service in Dallas, said his agency has neither the resources nor technology to police increasing freight and passenger train traffic from Mexico.
The agency's border posts recently acquired some X-ray technology capable of monitoring some freight, but experts say the few machines can make only a token impact.
Kevin Johnson, spokesman for Amtrak, said demand for the Northeast route “overwhelms the sensible consideration of increased opportunities for illegal drug activity.
“With any service expansion, Amtrak will continue to be vigilant and diligent in its efforts to stop the flow of illegal drugs at our facilities or our trains,” he said.
Besides identifying the threat of smuggling along the rails, the report says the drug that most threatens the public welfare in North Texas is methamphetamine, an easily manufactured synthetic stimulant similar to cocaine but cheaper.