News

Drug traffickers are using women and children as human mules to transport heroin and cocaine from California to Pittsburgh and other eastern cities on Greyhound buses.

That's the word from law enforcement authorities in San Francisco, Los Angeles and the Drug Enforcement Administration who say mules have turned to Greyhound following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Details of a California-to-Pittsburgh drug pipeline emerged late last year after police in San Francisco were tipped off to a Pittsburgh area man flying out teams of local women and children to load up on cocaine and heroin.

"Not only do I believe it, I've seen it," said Joe Kilmer, a Miami-based DEA spokesman, of the California-to-Pittsburgh connection. Kilmer has arrested Pittsburgh-based drug mules in the past.

Asked about Greyhound buses being used to transport drugs, Kim Plaskett, a Greyhound spokesperson based in Dallas, declined to comment on what she characterized as "active criminal investigations."

Federal and local authorities were unable to pinpoint the extent of the problem in Pittsburgh by providing arrest statistics. The DEA does not maintain separate arrest records for drugs transported by air, rail, and bus, said DEA spokesman Richard McGoldrick in the Philadelphia office.

Using children and women as a cover, the mules transport the contraband on their body and in luggage for a bus trip.

The profits can be huge, because an ounce of heroin purchased San Francisco for $400 and could sell in Pittsburgh for $3,500, said Britt Elmore, a detective in the San Francisco police department's drug squad.

Elmore said his team is working to obtain arrest warrants on a Pittsburgh-area suspect and his accomplices.

City police say most illegal drugs entering Pittsburgh come from Philadelphia and New York City. The California-Pittsburgh connection is a new development, said Cmdr. William Valenta, head of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police narcotics squad.

In the past two years, city police have arrested eight people at the Greyhound terminal Downtown for narcotics-related offenses, Valenta said.

More people are arrested in some other major cities.

For example, in 2002 the DEA in Miami arrested 73 mules; they arrested 84 in 2003, Kilmer said. So far this year, 38 mules have been busted in Miami, Kilmer said. That number also includes arrests at Miami International Airport.

Plaskett said security measures at Greyhound stations include random passenger screenings and bomb- and drug-sniffing dogs posted at Greyhound terminals.

Federal authorities say since 9/11 traffickers have become adept at exploiting Greyhound security, taking advantage of the fed's war on terror to move drugs in the country by bus, train and car.

Also, luggage checked on Greyhound is not searched and riders on many routes aren't required to show an ID to buy a ticket. Greyhound's computers aren't linked to state and federal databases listing wanted criminals and terrorists.

Greyhound generated $975 million in revenue in 2003 and spent $11 million on security. The company received an additional $9 million from the feds but Plaskett blasted Uncle Sam for not giving more.

"Obviously much more needs to be done," she said.

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News