Truckers oppose plans to scan

CARSON CITY -- Nevada's trucking industry is fighting a plan to let private companies build and profit from high-tech ports of entry that would use X-ray machines to scan trucks for contraband and human smuggling.

Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, sponsor of AB374, told the Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday that the ports are needed because Las Vegas is a high-risk terrorist target.

"We need to reduce Nevada's vulnerability to potential terrorist attacks and we need to ensure the safety of our citizens and tourists," Oceguera said.

The plan would require the Nevada Department of Transportation to solicit private companies to construct and finance four entry ports on Interstate 15 in southern Nevada and Interstate 80 in northern Nevada, on the state's eastern and western borders.

High-tech equipment could scan up to 20,000 trucks a day to see whether they're being used to smuggle drugs, people or explosives that could be used by terrorists.

The bill has support from the Metropolitan Police Department and Nevada Highway Patrol. An amendment that allows for the private financing persuaded NDOT to switch its original opposition to the bill to a neutral stance.

The Nevada Motor Transport Association opposes the bill. The group's government affairs director, Ronald Levine, said the scanners "will not do the job and will not stop anything."

He said criminals simply would take other routes into Nevada if the ports of entry were established.

"There are 37 ways to get into the state, and this is only going to take care of four. ... If I have millions of dollars of contraband, illegal aliens, drugs, noxious plants, I'm not going to drive through if I know there's a port of entry there," Levine said.