California National Guard Wants to Expand Drug Interdiction Efforts

The California National Guard hopes to expand its drug interdiction efforts in the wake of the Border Ranger II operation last May on the U. S.-Mexico border, the Guard’s top officer said Monday.

Adjutant Gen. Robert Thrasher called the monthlong operation, which deployed 405 reservists at legal and illegal border crossings and in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, “a model” for military efforts against drug smuggling nationwide.

But he also warned that the Guard’s combat readiness would suffer if the force were continually diverted to drug interdiction tasks.

Much Publicized Crackdown

At a Mission Valley seminar hosted by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado) and attended by local law enforcement officials, National Guard officers provided fresh details of the controversial operation that placed their troops, some of them armed, on the border. The mission involved surveillance and customs searches by the soldiers, who then passed on the information to civilian agencies for further action.

The much-publicized crackdown netted more than four tons of drugs with an estimated street value of $135 million, said Maj. James Hitsley, who worked on Border Ranger II as an intelligence and operations officer. Guardsmen searched 13,432 vehicles and 828 shipping containers, and their work led to 569 arrests, Hitsley said.

The Guard also conducted ground and air surveillance of the border area, he said. It used ground-based radar at Laguna Salada in the desert and AH-64 Apache helicopters equipped with infrared sensors for the May operation, and the military technology proved a notable success, Hitsley said.

Although they lacked arrest powers, some of the National Guard units deployed in Border Ranger II were the first in the nation to be armed with assault rifles for a drug interdiction mission. Hunter, an advocate of military involvement in such missions, said armed guardsmen worked only as border observers and carried weapons for self-defense.

Hunter also said he favors giving the military arrest powers and dismissed concerns that the proposal would endanger civil rights. “The only thing it would endanger are the drug traffickers,” he said.

It was Hunter, along with Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), who backed legislation in 1988 that eventually appropriated $300 million for this year’s military drug interdiction efforts. Of that amount, $40 million went to the National Guard, including $2 million for operation Border Ranger II.

First Operation Canceled

Although that money has nearly run out, the Guard could get as much as $70 million for similar operations in 1990, according to Thrasher. Total appropriations for next year’s military drug interdiction could rise to $450 million, he said.

The 1988 Border Ranger operation, a predecessor of the May effort, was canceled after one of its first helicopter patrols crashed, killing five sheriffs’ deputies from different parts of Southern California and three guardsmen aboard. Despite claims of Border Ranger II’s success, National Guard officers at the seminar acknowledged that they could not gauge the effect of the operation on the overall flow of illegal drugs into the country.

U.S. Atty. William Braniff and San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen attended the seminar. Representatives from the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Border Patrol and Customs Service were also there.

Some of Hunter’s constituents, invited because of their concern about drug trafficking, repeatedly questioned the officials about potential solutions.

“What would Harry Truman have done about all this?” asked one man.

“If you sell or promote drugs, the first time you are caught (the sentence) should be 30 years in prison, and the second time the death penalty,” said another, to scattered applause.