stepped in front of a car driving on Virginia 501 in

stepped in front of a car driving on Virginia 501 in Campbell County at 1 a.m. Saturday.

Less marijuana found

PORTSMOUTH — The Coast Guard’s drug war off the Virginia coast, a hot item three years ago with 16 vessels seized and 108 tons of,marijuana confiscated, has1 cooled to one vessel seized and 5 tons taken so far this year.

It is the third straight year that marijuana trafficking has declined, and it comes at a time When the Coast Guard’s drug interdiction effort is more sophisticated than ever, officials say.

Last week, Coast Guard officials offered several possible explanations for the decline:

• Drug smugglers appear to be trafficking more heavily in heroin and cocaine, which are more profitable than marijuana and also easier to conceal. • Major antidrug operations in the Caribbean and in South America have greatly reduced the supply of marijuana and hindered its flow into the United States. ,

• As the anti-drug effort grows more sophisticated, so, too, do the tactics of smugglers, who are more likely to use airplanes and construct fake compartments and fuel tanks for hiding drugs.

Coast Guard officials said statistics on the drug war can be misleading.

By its own estimates, the service detects only 20 percent to 25 percent of the drug traffic flowing into the 5th District, which is based in Portsmouth and covers the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland.

Thus, reading meaning into the numbers is an imprecise business at best, said Lt. Kenneth M. Bradford, operations officer in the Coast Guard’s general law enforcement division in Washington, D.C.

“It becomes very speculative when you start looking for reasons for trends. I certainly don’t think it’s a drop-off of our activity,” he said.

Dump fire still burns

NORFOLK — Concerns about pollution prompted authorities Monday to allow a landfill fire to bum with