L.A., Long Beach backing new force to safeguard cargo departing ports. (Up Front).

With a law enforcement unit responsible for cracking down on cargo thefts at local ports deactivated due to budget cuts, officials plan to form another agency to perform the task.

The Port of Long Beach and county supervisors each have allocated $200,000 to fund a task force to replace the Cargo Criminal Apprehension Team that was disbanded in August.

Port of L.A. officials expect to provide the same amount to keep the program running for the next six months while a permanent funding source is sought.

As of late last week, the L.A. port was expected to place the $200,000 funding request by the sheriff's department on its Nov. 13 bi-weekly meeting agenda. The delay left task force organizers concerned that their December target date to begin operations might not be met.

But L.A. Harbor Commission President Nicholas Tonsich said he believes his board eventually will approve the funding. "It's important to fund cargo security at the ports," he said. "Having an operation in effect that keeps the cargo secure is an added benefit to the ports' tenants."

Cargo CATS recovered $168 million in stolen property and made 1,100 arrests from its inception in January 1990 through December 2001.

The region, which boasts the nation's largest port complex at L.A.-Long Beach, leads the nation in container theft. The value of goods reported stolen throughout Southern California skyrocketed to $600 million annually, from $300 million in 1996, according to FBI special agent Eric Ives, who works the agency's cargo theft unit in Long Beach.

But increases in container truck hijackings and kidnappings of warehouse security guards were not enough to prevent the cash-strapped L.A. County Sheriff's Department from budgeting the Cargo CATS out of existence. The money was shifted to fight more serious crimes that result in injury or death, officials said.

"Although Cargo CATS does occasionally deal with (potentially) life and death cases in the hijacking of trucks, the majority of our cases are theft of property," said sheriff's Lt. Joe Arteaga, unit commander of the Cargo CATS and organizer of the new task force.

After the budget ax fell, port tenants and other maritime businesses deluged the sheriff's department with hundreds of letters and phone calls urging it to keep the program alive. The threat of terrorism was an added inducement.

"it's difficult at this point, post-Sept. 11, to separate street crime from what could be an act of terrorism," said sheriff's department Chief Mike Soderberg, head of the detectives division, which oversaw the Cargo CATS. "It all goes hand in hand -- cargo theft, homeland security, security of our ports and cargo container security."

The port already has donated space in a Wilmington building it owns for the California Highway Patrol's Cargo Theft Intervention Program, which now leases space in Rancho Cucamonga. The task force, to be made up partly of sheriff's department personnel, will share space and resources there (including a database of cargo thieves) with the 11-investigator CHP unit. CTIP has been overseeing cargo theft prevention operations since the Cargo CATS was disbanded.

Agency coordination

Funding the yet-to-be-named task force would restore the seven Cargo CATS investigator positions -- six deputies and one sergeant or lieutenant.

CHP, U.S. Customs Service, FBI and the Los Angeles, Ontario, Long Beach, Vernon and L.A. port police departments would each provide one full-time investigator at their own departments' expense to the task force as they did for the Cargo CATS.

Ives said many thefts go unreported because logistics companies don't want their clients to know about the incidents for fear of losing business. "It's hard to get an accurate figure for the cargo theft problem," he said.

Law enforcement authorities long have maintained that most thefts involve "give-ups" where drivers transporting goods from the ports to a warehouse are bribed (generally $2,000 to $3,000) to leave their keys in the vehicles at road stops and walk away, allowing the thieves easy access.

Another popular method was paying off security guards and dispatchers at container yards to turn a blind eye while cargo is taken.

But the methods turned more violent in recent years. Truck hijackings within L.A. city limits have increased to 25 so far this year, from 14 in 2000, according to LAPD records.

Law enforcement officials said more narcotics dealers were turning to cargo theft to reduce their chances of doing hard time.

"More people are getting involved in the theft of cargo," Arteaga said. "It's a crime where the chances of getting caught are minimal and even if they are caught, the sentences are not going to be as stiff as other activities they might be involved in."

A $600,000 budget running from December through June for the task force would still fall short of the original $1.8 million annually allotment, or $900,000 for six months.

But task force organizers would make up the difference by cutting one or two of the original three non-sworn Cargo CATS staff positions, reduction in overtime hours and utilization of the L.A. port's free housing.

"We need the sheriff to participate fully in the task force," said L.A. port police Chief Noel Cunningham. "They have the expertise and the data base that provides you with the leads to the criminals."

Task force organizers hope to receive permanent funding from the federal government and the California Legislature.