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Operations Pipeline and Convoy

Beginning in the early 1980s, New Mexico state troopers grew suspicious following a sharp increase in the number of motor vehicle violations, particularly along Interstate-40, that resulted in drug seizures and arrests. Simultaneously, troopers in New Jersey began making similar seizures during highway stops along the Interstate-95 "drug corridor" from Florida to the Northeast. Independently, troopers in New Mexico and New Jersey established their own highway drug interdiction programs. Their drug and money seizures grew immediately. Seizure and arrest increases signaled to law enforcement officers that the nation's highways had become major arteries for drug transportation. In addition, they found that tons of illicit drugs were flowing north and east from Florida and the nation's southwest border, while millions of dollars of drug profits returned south and west - as if traveling through a pipeline.

Over time, as seizures mounted, highway officers found that highway drug couriers shared many characteristics, tendencies, and methods. Highway law enforcement officers began to ask key questions to help determine whether or not motorists they had stopped for traffic violations were also carrying drugs. These interview techniques proved extremely effective. The road patrol officers also found it beneficial to share their observations and experiences in highway interdiction at conferences and other multi-agency gatherings.

The success of the highway interdiction programs in New Mexico and New Jersey eventually led to the creation of Operation Pipeline in 1984. Pipeline, a nationwide highway interdiction program that focuses on private motor vehicles, is one of the DEA's most effective operations and continues to provide essential cooperation between the DEA and state and local law enforcement agencies. The operation is composed of three elements: training, real-time communication, and analytic support. Each year, the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), with the assistance of state and local highway officer, conducts dozens of training schools across the country, attended by other state and local highway officers. These classes are intended to inform officers of interdiction laws and policies, to increase their knowledge of drug trafficking, and to sharpen their detection of highway couriers. Training classes focus on: (1) the law, policy, and ethics governing highway stops and drug prosecution; and (2) drug trafficking trends and key characteristics, or indicators, that are shared by drug traffickers. Also, through EPIC, state and local agencies continue to share real-time information with other agencies and can immediately obtain the results of their record checks and receive detailed analysis of drug seizures to support their investigations.

Although Operation Pipeline relies in part on training officers to use characteristics to determine potential drug traffickers, it is important to understand that the program does not advocate such profiling by race or ethnic background. The issue of suspect profiling has been reviewed extensively over the course of the past decade in an effort to assure government officials that all the necessary precautions have been and will continue to be taken to ensure the fair, ethical, and impartial treatment of criminal suspects. Officers are trained to recognize a number of exceptional indicators that would lead law enforcement personnel to suspect criminal activity. During training, they are exposed to both the visual and audio indicators of deception and their potential link to criminal activity. Participants in this training learn concealment methods used by criminals based on prior interdiction efforts and how particular indicators of deception have led officers to extend their roadside interviews during traffic stops.

In 1990, Operation Convoy, Pipeline's sister operation, was created to target drug transportation organizations that use commercial vehicles to traffic drugs. Operation Convoy conducts long-term surveillance undercover operations and other enforcement activities aimed at transportation organizations. Much of the investigative work conducted through Operation Convoy occurs at truck stops, cargo transshipment areas, and motels. In addition, Operation Convoy began training DEA special agents to drive large commercial motor vehicles during undercover investigations. The DEA also assists state agencies with investigations following seizures of commercial vehicles on the nation's highways.