Diane Parker, a 25-year-veteran with the Department of Agriculture, has crawled through commercial vehicles filled with vegetables and other foods for 25 years, looking for non-native flies, ants other threats to Arizona’s multi-billion dollar agriculture businesses.
As the operations manager for the port-of-entry at San Simon in eastern Arizona — a checkpoint for commercial vehicles traveling into the state on I-10 — she’ll now be digging through shipments looking for more sinister types of cargo thanks to training supplied by the Arizona Office of Homeland Security.
About 85 law enforcement agents, including 17 Arizona Department of Agriculture inspectors, went to the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson on May 17-18 to hone their skills identifying shady drivers and signs of hidden smuggling compartments created in vehicles.
The idea is to afford “another set of eyes” to prevent the smuggling of drugs, cash, guns and biological and radiation-based weapons of mass destruction into Arizona, said Mark Howard, a grants administrator of the Arizona Office of Homeland Security.
“It could be anything from produce trailers to tankers,” said Mr. Howard, on what type of vehicles are searched at the port-of-entries. “The threat is definitely out there.”
22 ports-of-entry here
There are 22 ports-of-entry into Arizona, including six at cities bordering Mexico.
About 70 percent of produce entering the United States comes into the Nogales port-of-entry, said Mr. Howard.
The training was conducted by Desert Snow Training, a Lake Havasu City-based security consulting firm started by Joseph David, a former California Highway Patrol officer.
Since 1990 his company, consisting of retired and active law enforcement officers, provides instruction on the methods of detecting contraband in cars, trailers and other vehicles by using “non-intrusive” means and noticing “criminal characteristics” of drivers, he said.
“We can’t go out and just tear apart cars and trucks,” Mr. David said. “We have to go professionally about it.”
Technological tools such as x-ray machines are usually unavailable for on-the-ground officers pulling over vehicles or while on duty at inspection sites, he said.
Ms. Parker said she had found the training and the assembly useful because it commingled officers from different agencies, furthering the potential for improved communications to intercept suspect cargo and drivers, she said.
“We’re getting everybody trained,” she said. “If I see something at two in the morning, I can say I see this indicator and this indicator. I need your assistance. They’re a phone call away.”
Some unusual finds
In her years of experience hunting for glassy winged sharpshooters, Mediterranean fruit flies, Japanese beetles and non-native fire ants, she has made some startling discoveries.
“I’ve had dead people in trailers, caskets,” said Ms. Parker. “And loads of UDA’s [undocumented immigrants] coming through San Simon.”
She said she does not mind expanding her searches from bugs to drugs and possibly terrorist weapons.
“I feel like I’m doing a very important thing for the citizens of Arizona,” she said. “I’m already there with my eyes and ears. It gives me more purpose.”
The volume of vehicles arriving at ports-of-entry fluctuate, according to weather, traffic conditions, harvest times and what products are being shipped at certain times of year, she said.
Ports-of-entry on the I-10 and 1-40 inspected about 500 vehicles in April, she said.
In the past year, ports-of-entry inspectors have inspected 120,000 commercial vehicles coming into the state. Arizona, California and Florida are the only states that conduct agricultural inspections at ports-of-entries, according to the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
Arizona Department of Agriculture and Department of Transportation employees are unarmed and do not make arrests. They enforce commerce regulations found in title 28, while Department of Public Safety officers uphold criminal law found in title 13 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, said Ric Athey, assistant director of ADOT, which sent nine officers to the training seminar.
Most often safety citations are issued at ports-of-entry and sometimes drivers are prevented from traveling further if they are incapacitated from lack of sleep or the under the influence of narcotics, he said.
For suspected criminal violations, officials at the state’s ports-of-entry call DPS to make arrests, said Mr. Athey.
The Arizona Office of Homeland Security started using the services of Mr. David in 2005 in Globe. About 2,000 law enforcement personnel attended, said Mr. Howard.
Mr. David estimates the consulting firm has taught about 35,000 law enforcement personnel from United States and countries in Africa, South America, and Asia to profile drivers and inspect vehicles for indicators of smuggling efforts.
He refused to identify common operational procedures used to detect vehicle smuggling efforts.
“We’re one step behind and we don’t want to fall two steps behind,” he said.