Drug Trade Comes Storming Back on Heels of Hurricane
Hurricane Andrew may have devastated the nation’s cocaine capital, but traffickers and drug hunters are quickly returning to business as usual, officials say.
After the storm, high-tech radar and detection equipment was quietly flown into devastated Homestead Air Force Base--the center for many interdiction programs--and is operating under camouflage.
Although overland drug routes are disrupted and safehouses demolished, some international cocaine dealers have seen Andrew as an opportunity, said Jim Shedd, spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami.
The Customs Service has reported detecting fewer suspected drug flights with its radar planes, but smuggling through Miami International Airport continues.
In the first 10 days after Andrew, customs inspectors intercepted 59 pounds of cocaine, six pounds of heroin and 229 pounds of marijuana on passengers, along with 120 pounds of cocaine found in air cargo.
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