Pubdate: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX) Copyright: 2000 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas Contact: http://www.star-telegram.com/ Forum: http://www.star-telegram.com/comm/forums/ Author: Chris Roberts DRUG CZAR SAYS HE WILL MOVE DRUG OPERATIONS HQ TO EL PASO EL PASO, Texas -- The headquarters for a federal program that provides money and support in the war against drug trafficking will be moved from San Diego to El Paso. The Southwest Border High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program has a budget of $46 million a year and covers 2,000 miles of border between the United States and Mexico. It focuses on specific counties in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas that have known drug-smuggling routes. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey, in a written statement provided to The Associated Press, called the Southwest border "a major drug smuggling corridor" and said the plan will reduce illegal drug trafficking. One of the reasons for the move is to put the organization's headquarters close to other El Paso-based anti-drug groups such as the Drug Enforcement Agency's El Paso Intelligence Center, which tracks Mexican drug gangs. "The other principal drug fighting entities are here in El Paso," McCaffrey said Thursday during an interview. "We need a coordinated and integrated center." Another reason for the move, McCaffrey said, is that Texas accounts for just under 900 miles of the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. "Texas is a huge piece of that (border)," he said. "It's a huge piece of the drug smuggling route." Testimony this year before a state Senate committee put total smuggler prosecutions along the border at 1,000 per year. In June, Jaime Esparza, district attorney for El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties and head of Southwest Border Prosecutors, said a two-year-old study found that counties bordering Mexico from Texas to California spent between $48.5 million and $148.6 million prosecuting federal drug crimes each year. McCaffrey was expected to introduce the plan Thursday night at a meeting of law-enforcement officials in El Paso. On Friday, he was to tour Juarez and El Paso learning about anti-drug efforts. From the Mexican border to the streets of New York, 31 High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas -- regions with serious drug problems -- have been selected over the last decade. In the regions, local, state, federal and military law-enforcement agencies work together on various projects to oppose illegal drug use and distribution. After starting with a federal investment of $25 million shared among five regions in 1990, the program will divide more than $190 million in 2000. McCaffrey says his plan will streamline the Southwest operation and increase cooperation among agencies that include the U.S. Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Border Patrol, and state, county and city law-enforcement agencies. "It's generally understood that this area is and has been a major artery for narcotics smuggling in the United States," said Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier. "It's a valuable, strategic idea to focus on this area as the headquarters for this operation." A U.S. Customs Service official in Washington said he wasn't familiar enough with the plan to comment. The Southwest Border regions is one of the five original high intensity drug-trafficking areas. In 1994, the organization was split into five groups based on historical drug-trafficking corridors, one each in California, Arizona and New Mexico, with Texas being divided into west and south. In his plan, McCaffrey said those groups have been operating independently to address "local drug trafficking nuances." However, that independence has resulted in "management inconsistencies that have negatively impacted . . . operations," he said. So McCaffrey's plan will centralize operations of the Southwest high-intensity zone. Five regional executive committees will be revamped into state advisory boards that will answer to a single executive committee under the plan. The El Paso-based executive committee will develop a "unification" strategy and budget for the Southwest program. McCaffrey said the plan should be finalized within two months. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart