State police score big in Mercer County

MERCER, Pa. (AP) Of the 115,000 vehicles that travel Interstate 80 each
day, state police Trooper Richard Houk picked the right one on a Tuesday in
June the one that contained 10 pounds of heroin.

Houk's bust was the largest heroin seizure in the United States this year,
another case in a burgeoning trend of narcotics arrests for troopers at the
Mercer station in the heart of smalltown Pennsylvania.

Since 1996, the Mercer barracks located along I80 about 55 miles north
of Pittsburgh has seized $12 million worth of heroin, $8 million worth
of cocaine, $5 million worth of marijuana and $1 million in suspected drug
money. The unit has led the state in highway interdiction arrests since
1988, said Sgt. Michael Britvich.

Last December, Trooper Mark Gladysz stopped a vehicle carrying 52 pounds of
cocaine, the most seized on a state highway in 1996.

Mercer is the first Pennsylvania county motorists reach on I80 when they
drive in from Ohio. And the interstate is a major eastwest link for
vacationers, truckers and drug runners.

``After so long, you know when somebody's nervous about getting a ticket
and when somebody's nervous about something bigger than that,'' said Cpl.
Gary Sawor. ``Basically, we depend on the people saying something stupid or
doing something stupid.''

For example, some drivers will say they're headed to Chicago when they're
actually traveling in another direction, he said.

``The average person isn't completely prepared to make up a lie and have it
in order,'' Sawor said.

But while the key to the Mercer barracks' success is aggressive patrolling,
that strategy has a price.

In Maryland, state police came under fire after the American Civil
Liberties Union claimed they were stopping a disproportionate amount of
minorities on Interstate 95.

And in eastern Pennsylvania, motorist George Karnes sued two troopers who
stopped him in 1990 for speeding on Interstate 78. The troopers suspected
he had drugs because of several ``indicators,'' including the fact that his
car, a blue Honda Accord, was possibly a disguise because it was so
ordinarylooking.

A federal appeals court ruled that troopers did not have just cause for the
search, and Karnes won $25,000, said his lawyer, Gary Gildon.

``They don't just want people yanked out here and (saying), Hey, can I
search your vehicle?' without any just cause,'' Sawor said. ``It's not a
witch hunt.''

Neither Sawor nor Britvich would say just what clues troopers use to decide
whether to search a vehicle.

``The facial features of people are key,'' Britvich said.

He added that many suspects cooperate because they believe authorities were
looking for them.

``Ninetynine percent of them, when they get stopped, think someone turned
them in,'' Britvich said.