Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 29, 1995 TAG: 9505010003
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HAGERSTOWN, MD. LENGTH: Medium
Trooper Jeff Kissner stops a small moving van for speeding on Interstate 81, but he really suspects the driver is hauling drugs.
``He's nervous,'' Kissner says when he returns to his squad car after chatting with the driver.
``He told me he's going to Florida to drop off this load of furniture, but his log book says he's going to Houston, Texas. That tells me right there that he's lying to me.''
Kissner grabs his radio to call for a drug-sniffing dog.
Kissner is part of a Maryland State Police drug interdiction team based in Hagerstown that works the 12 miles of I-81 that stretch from the Mason-Dixon Line to the Potomac River.
More drug traffickers began favoring I-81 a few years ago to avoid beefed up interdiction efforts on Interstate 95, an East Coast route linking drug centers in New York and Florida.
To fight back, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are starting an initiative to curb violent crime and drug trafficking in the I-81 corridor through Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.
Police in the tri-state region already were working together to investigate drug trafficking along the highway, but the initiative, funded by a $111,232 grant through the crime bill, will mean more interstate cooperation, a drug intelligence computer and overtime funds.
The new Tri-State Violent Crimes Task Force will include city police officers from Hagerstown; Martinsburg, W.Va.; and Winchester, Va.; county deputies from Washington County; Berkeley and Jefferson counties in West Virginia; and Frederick County, Va.; and state police officers from all three states.
Federal representatives will be from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which will be the lead agency.
``We're seeing the prices are decreasing, which means that cocaine is more readily available in that area,'' said Larry Hornstein, a DEA spokesman. ``You have to have a tri-state approach to solve the problem.''
The moving van driver was still in his cab when Cpl. Steve McCarty's drug-sniffing dog named Preston began prancing around the truck, focusing underneath a part of the trailer closest to the cab. Kissner searched the driver's belongings for drugs, but nothing was found.
``Somebody else loaded the truck. I'm just hauling it,'' the driver said. ``If you find drugs in there, will I be arrested?''
When the troopers opened the rear of the truck, they saw furniture stacked to the roof. The only way to check the front section of the trailer would have been to unload all the furniture on the highway.
``It's all the way in the front,'' Kissner said, climbing back in his squad car after issuing the driver warnings for speeding and two minor infractions. ``There was either drugs or money in the front end of that trailer, but we don't have the facilities to just unload the whole thing.''
Maryland State Police have made 78 drug interdiction stops along I-81 during the past four years. The stops yielded $572,067, 32 pounds of marijuana, 5 pounds of powdered cocaine and 1 1/2 pounds of crack cocaine, according to state police spokesman Mike McKelvin. That's enough crack for more than 3,000 rocks, each about half the size of a sugar cube, he said.
by CNB