Pubdate: Thu, 18 Oct 2001
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2001 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.herald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Tim Johnson

DRUG-POLICING EFFORTS MAY SUFFER

DEA, Coast Guard Divert Resources To Terrorism Fight

WASHINGTON -- As the U.S. government focuses on terrorism, drug traffickers 
in South America are smuggling more narcotics through the Caribbean toward 
U.S. borders, experts said Wednesday.

"Trafficking organizations see a window of opportunity to traffic in the 
Caribbean," Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson told a 
legislative panel.

The DEA and the Coast Guard have removed personnel from counter-narcotics 
functions and deployed them to combat terrorism, and the Coast Guard has 
pulled eight cutters from the Caribbean, officials told the House 
Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

Independent experts said counter-narcotics efforts might become a partial 
casualty -- despite $1.3 billion in U.S. counter-drug assistance to 
Colombia this year -- as the Pentagon engages in military action in 
Afghanistan and combats terrorism at home.

Not A Priority

"Colombia is just not an intelligence priority right now. Look at the Gulf 
War. We pulled all sorts of resources from South America," said Raphael 
Perl, a narcotics and terrorism specialist with the Congressional Research 
Service. U.S. forces now deploy fewer of the specialized radar aircraft 
known as Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) over the Andes and the 
Caribbean to watch for suspicious planes, said Bruce M. Bagley, a 
University of Miami expert on the narcotics trade.

"There were about four [AWACS aircraft] we were using on a regular basis 
before. And at least two have been withdrawn," Bagley said.

As U.S. radar planes re-deploy to South Asia, drug traffickers may be 
testing to see if U.S. counter-narcotics efforts have lessened, said Peter 
Probst, a former Pentagon counter-terrorism official. "This, unfortunately, 
works to their advantage. They are incredibly opportunistic," he said.

The U.S. military denies that counter-narcotics operations have diminished.

"We can't tell you the number or location of our resources, due to 
operational security reasons," said Capt. Trisha Cundiff, a spokeswoman for 
U.S. Southern Command air forces. "But the Air Force remains committed to 
continuing cooperative efforts . . . in counter-drug operations."

Of the many agencies involved in U.S. counter-narcotics efforts, the Coast 
Guard may face the greatest strains as its vessels are diverted to protect 
coastal nuclear and power plants and ports with storage facilities for 
potentially explosive materials.

The number of vessels and aircraft devoted to counter-narcotics missions 
has fallen between 65 and 75 percent since Sept. 11, Coast Guard Rear Adm. 
Terry M. Cross told the subcommittee. The shift to homeland security 
"challenges our ability to adequately resource other missions, notably drug 
interdiction," Cross warned in prepared testimony.

After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the Coast Guard pulled three cutters 
from counter-drug operations in the eastern Pacific, and dropped the number 
of cutters in the Caribbean on law enforcement patrols from 11 to three, 
Cross said.

The DEA also faces a staffing shortfall as it helps on the 
counter-terrorism front.

"A little over 100 agents" are temporarily serving as air marshals, 
Hutchinson told The Herald after the hearing. Another 40 DEA intelligence 
analysts are on loan to the FBI, he added.

Unintended Benefit

Some experts believe that enhanced vigilance at U.S. borders may 
counter-balance reduced surveillance over the Andean region and throughout 
the Caribbean.

"It cuts both ways," said Jonathan M. Winer, a former deputy assistant 
secretary of state for international law enforcement. As border agents 
heighten their alert, "it has the potential to create a crackdown on crime 
across the board."

Advocates of aggressive U.S. counter-narcotics tactics voice annoyance that 
the State Department has not established the safety mechanisms that would 
allow the renewal of a policy to target any suspicious aircraft in the 
Andean region and shoot them out of the sky.

Washington stopped sharing radar signals with Andean countries in late 
April after a CIA radar plane helped a Peruvian jet fighter shoot down a 
civilian aircraft, killing a U.S. missionary and her daughter.

A still-secret report discussing the conditions for restarting the program 
remains under discussion at the State Department two months after its 
completion. "The [department] is still paralyzed. It's mind-boggling," said 
a senior congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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MAP posted-by: Beth