Show The Herald Journal Logan Utah Wednesday February 12 1986- -7 Turks: Dogs helicopters needed in drug war By Thomas C Goltz VAN Turkey (UPI) In 1984 they intercepted 195 kilos of heroin and 79 kilos of the drug’s morphine base Last year the figures were 88 kilos of heroin and 86 kilos of morphine “We know of one village alone in western Iran where there are 6 tons of base morphine in stock” a narcotics agent said -T- urkey’s narcotics squads are attempting to step up their war against drugs coming across the vast border with Iran but are finding themselves poorly equipped to stem the tide "We are the first country on the heroin road on the way to the West" said a officer “But there is only so much we can do with the means at our command “We have enough manpower and training What we need now are dogs and helicopters to really take the war to the Iranian ruler Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini "may execute users and smugglers when he finds them in Tehran but the Iranian government has no control over the outlying regions were poppies are grown and where smuggling is a way of life" the agent said “We simply have to wait until the enemy" dope gets over the border Heroin flows across the track- before we can pounce” less mountains on Turkey's What they need is help in border with Iran in frightening pouncing amounts Turkey has mobilized Most drugs come through its forces to halt it — from 314 what ought to be the easiest agents who intercepted 48 kilo- blocking point on the snowe frontier — the grams of heroin in 1959 to 1559 bound n border station at agents now high-ranki- 282-mil- two-natio- Gurbulak under the shadow of Mount Ararat What makes the job" impossible however is traffic Almost none of the 3000 vehicles transiting from Iran daily are stopped and searched mainly to keep traffic moving Agents haven’t the equipment to search adequately even those vehicles they do stop “Without a massive truck machine to scan every vehicle or a team of sniffer dogs there is no way we can curtail the drug traffic at Gurbulak” a narcotics official said “We have to rely entirely on informants and then pick up the smugglers somewhere down the road” Narcotics officials have asked friendly countries for help with a sniffer dog program for Gurbulak and 78 other customs posts Estimates of its cost are about $10 million A pilot project at Gurbulak and two other ' X-r- ay border stations is expected to have enough information begin in June “Turkey is the only country in the West that does not use dogs” the project's initiator said Even stopping traffic through Gurbulak however leaves apartments and the others are being housed in motels at a cost to Seattle of between $1000 and $2000 per month per family The city also is paying for k security at their houses The decline in property values poses a potentially staggering cost to Seattle So far the city has 30 claims against it for the price of houses and emotional damages and resi KENT leven Wash (UPI) -Efamilies have been forced out of a middle-clas- s area of Kent not by prejudice e or poverty but by a round-the-cloc- man-mad- crisis emanating from dump The a nearby landfill Midway Landfill since 1966 Seattle for operated and officially closed in 1983 is the source of methane gas creeping under Interstate 5 and into homes “It was like living with a time bomb" Ann Curtis 36 said of the time she her husband and two daughters spent in their house after methane was discovered in the basement “We’ve lost our home but so far no one has lost their life But people who are still there — they have to live with it day to 60-ac- re day” Methane created by decaying organic material is a natural and highly explosive by'roduct of landfills In one of the country’s most serious incidents a duplex near a landfill in Madison Wis blew up on Nov 19 1983 seriously burning two people and forcing 26 others to be evacuated Another explosion destroyed an empty house next to a landfill in Akron Ohio in March 1984 forcing the evacuation of 13 nearby homes A few months later near West Covina Calif homes were evacuated because of high levels of methane and carcinogenic vinyl 21 chloride While the incidents were caused by problems similar to Midway’s the Kent landfill is different because of the depth of the methane and the distance it has traveled In other landfills methane traveled no further than a few hundred feet but at Midway — which holds an estimated 3 million tons of garbage — it has migrated at least half a mile "Midway is a problem because it is a very deep landfill with garbage buried approximately 150 feet underpound” said Greg Bishop the environmental health supervisor for the Seattle-Kin-g County Department of Public Health who has been responsible for evacuating the families When the dump opened 20 years ago no one understood the problems of methane Bishop said He added that Midway was considered a “very favorable” site because it was convenient to nearby roads and — because it was an abandoned gravel pit— it was cheap The health department first started monitoring methane at the landfill in 1981 when it detected small amounts near the dump In 1983 Seattle Mayor Charles Royer declared the dump an environmental hazard and closed it Finally last October the families and two businesses were evacuated when officials ted Ugh concentrations of methane In the buildings The gas considered explosive at concentrations between 4 and 18 percent in enclosed spaces had been found in concentrations up to 10 percent The city has drilled four wells to vent the gas from below the surface and could drill up to 10 de-d- more ec said Mark Edens Midway project manager for Seattle’s Solid Waste Utility The federal Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund has also contributed $500000 for a study of ways to clean up the mess said Neil Thompson EPA project manager for Midway He uid Midway is expected to be named in late February to the Superfund’s "national priorities list” which would make it eligible for federal money In the meantime two evacuated families are living in dents are considering a class action suit House near the landfill are for sale at prices 20 percent below assessed value but still aren't selling If Seattle is forced to buy the 400 homes in the neighborhood it could cost up to $20 million For Shirley Hines 41 an evacuee who left her house with her husband William and teenage son Martin on Jan 14 The 18 four-se- at helicopers now used cannot climb to the 13000-fo- ot ridges smugglers are usually armed with semi- automatic weapons The narcotics section is seeking 10 outdated US army helicopters “Although were not officially an army we believe we’re in a very real war and thus should qualilfy for at least 10” the narcotics officer said “mom and pop” drug smuggl- use Nor do they carry enough men to battle smugglers who ing operations using horses and mules to ferry small batches of heroin over the high passes of m the rugged frontier The smugglers come from tightly knit clans of the Kurds a tribe straddling the frontier One case officer in Van says To BUY most smugglers have more than STEREO one wife and extended families in both countries which pass The Console Stereos have been discon-tiue- d drugs from hand to hand on so now is your last chance to trust alone until the drug is sold to Istanbul middlemen or illicit buy at great savings heroin processing labratories “The only way to get at the horse and mule smugglers is by helicopter” said a senior narcotics officer “We generally LAST CHANCE AN MAGNAVOX CONSOLE Landfill becomes a nightmare for town By Terence M Finan on moving how much where but in the mountains ‘when’ is the critical factor is who the methane has caused tional and health problems emo- “I just can't go back there and live with the daily monitoring of the gas” Hines said “There is a constant stressful feeling of not knowing what's going to happen today” Methane is not known to cause health problems unless it is 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