Pubdate: Sat, 04 Aug 2001
Source: Inquirer (PA)
Copyright: 2001 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/home/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author: Lenny Savino

NEW DEA CHIEF PROMISES TO END INFLATED ARREST DATA

The new head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has pledged to end the 
agency's use of inflated drug-arrest and performance statistics and to 
focus on growing drug problems in rural America. Rep. Asa Hutchinson, a 
Republican from Arkansas, was confirmed to the post this week. In an 
interview, he said that he hoped to lift America's confidence that the drug 
war can succeed.

"We have engaged in this for decades, and there's a lot of frustration out 
there both on the law enforcement and public side," he said. "Everyone has 
to understand that there's hope we can make a difference."

He also promised that the DEA's staff of 9,100, whose mission is to keep 
illegal drugs out of the United States and bust major traffickers, would 
work harder to curb rural drug abuse, particularly involving 
methamphetamines and the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin.

Hutchinson, 50, was elected to Congress from Arkansas in 1996. A former 
U.S. attorney, he was one of the House members who prosecuted President 
Clinton during the impeachment trial in 1999. To head the $1.5 
billion-a-year agency, he will resign from Congress, effective Tuesday. He 
will earn $133,700 as DEA administrator, a slight decrease from his 
$135,000 congressional salary. Hutchinson must tackle some internal 
problems at the agency.

Recent Inquirer Washington Bureau stories disclosed that the DEA had no 
documents to support hundreds of arrests claimed in the agency's latest 
36-nation Caribbean antidrug dragnet. Hundreds of other arrests reported by 
the DEA turned out to be routine marijuana busts by local police.

Hutchinson deplored the practice and vowed to stop it.

"We have to have the correct moral compass and the proper training to make 
sure we gather our statistics in a correct and truthful fashion," 
Hutchinson said. At stake, he said, were "the credibility of federal law 
enforcement" and "the confidence of Congress" in his agency.

Of $30.2 million in assets claimed to have been seized from drug 
traffickers in the operation, the Washington Bureau found that $30 million 
had been seized before the operation began. DEA agents assigned to the San 
Juan headquarters overseeing Caribbean operations said superiors told them 
to count arrests made by local police as DEA arrests.

"We have to make sure of the accuracy of the statistics," Hutchinson said, 
"and that seizures are not double-counted."

Michael Vigil, director of the DEA's San Juan office and overseer of the 
operation, subsequently was promoted to head the agency's international 
division, which has agents in 56 countries. He is the subject of an ongoing 
internal investigation.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens