Pubdate: Fri, 13 Dec 2002
Source: Tribune Review (Pittsburgh, PA)
Contact:  2002 Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
Website: http://triblive.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/460
Author: Chuck Biedka, Valley News Dispatch
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Colombia (Colombia)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?194 (Hutchinson, Asa)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

MARCOCCI TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESSIONAL PANEL ON HEROIN USE

WASHINGTON -- A Congressional panel is asking why the U.S. government 
switched the focus of its successful anti-heroin program in Colombia to 
attack cocaine production and if the change in 2000 led to increased 
addiction and death in the United States since then.

"We have seen an unprecedented rise" in heroin use, Westmoreland County 
Detective Tony Marcocci told the House Government Reform Committee on Thursday.

Marcocci held stamped bags marked "Lightning," "Twelve Monkey" and "Mombo 
King." Each bag held 0.01 to 0.03 grams of Colombian heroin.

"Users wonder how something this small can hurt them," said Detective Scott 
J. Pelletier of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. "Divide a sweetener 
packet contents into 100 and the incredibly small amount of powder 
represents 0.01 grams," he said.

Pelletier, joined by Marcocci, a retired senior Drug Enforcement Agency 
agent from New York, an undercover Howard County, Md., detective and the 
director of a Baltimore-Washington drug task force, told the committee 
about heroin's path of destruction since the government's switch in 
emphasis to cocaine.

Marcocci grabbed the lawmakers' attention when he talked about 
rehabilitation. He and his partner, Westmoreland County Detective Terry 
Kuhns, "personally know of no success cases," Marcocci said.

"It is a disturbing reality to look into the eyes of a parent and their 
child, knowing in our hearts there is no hope the child will ever beat this 
addiction," Marcocci said.

Referring to the Sept. 25 Alle-Kiski Drug Summit held by the Valley News 
Dispatch and others, Marcocci said one speaker compared drug trafficking to 
serial murder. Marcocci said the D.C. sniper case showed how law 
enforcement and the community can work together. He said the same needs to 
be done for heroin as the federal authorities work to turn off the supply 
at its source in Colombia.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said Marcocci's 
Congressional testimony was the first such testimony by a county detective 
during the past 20 years and perhaps ever.

"I'm not surprised. Both Marcocci and Kuhns are routinely called as expert 
witnesses," he said.

Marcocci was accompanied to the hearing by Kuhns and Latrobe Police 
Detective Ray Dupilka because he displayed stamped bags being held as evidence.

Later in the session, Barry Crane, deputy director of the White House 
National Office on Drug Control Policy, and DEA Chief of Operations Rogelio 
Guevara said Marcocci and Kuhns might not know of success stories, but they 
know people can beat the habit. They need medical supervision and to leave 
surroundings that promote addiction, Crane said.

Committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., and other GOP committee leaders 
praised the detectives. But they repeatedly and pointedly asked the 
ambassador to Colombia, the National Office on Drug Policy, the DEA and the 
State Department to explain why the switch in emphasis from heroin to 
cocaine was made during the Clinton administration.

In 2000, the Colombian National Police destroyed about three-quarters of 
the poppy fields in nine months using U.S. helicopters and airplanes and 
planned to hit the fields again for the second crop as part of "Plan 
Colombia," Burton said. But in January 2001, a decision was made to switch 
the spraying and other efforts to kill coca plants that make cocaine.

Burton said the switch coincided with an influx of Colombian heroin in the 
Northeast.

The Black Hawk helicopters had been so effective that FARC, the Colombian 
anti-government guerilla group that uses drug money to operate, put out a 
contract on the helicopters and pilots, Burton said.

He said the switch has effectively grounded the helicopters, but a state 
department spokesman said the choppers are actually working more than 75 
percent of the time.

U.S. Rep. Janice D. Shakowsky, D-Ill., said she opposes "Plan Colombia," 
created by Burton and other Republicans to target poppy plants used in 
heroin production. She said an accidental bombing of civilians in Santo 
Domingo, Colombia, in 1998 shows the U.S. shouldn't rely on the Colombian 
National Police or its army.

She also asked why Republicans are second guessing the decision now.

Rep. Ben Gilman, R-N.Y., said most Colombian cocaine goes to Europe, but 
most heroin is smuggled into the United States.

"We would not be in the Colombian heroin crisis we face today" if the 
switch had not occurred, he said.

Burton, Gilman and other Republicans were upset that DEA Director Asa 
Hutchinson and White House Office of National Drug Control Police Director 
John Walters sent assistants to speak for them instead of attending a 
hearing by the oversight committee.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State Paul E. Simons said a number of top 
U.S. and Colombian officials made the decision to target cocaine.

The State Department, which is coordinating Plan Colombia with other 
agencies, now wants to spray poppy and coca fields in 2003, while it 
continues to spray through the end of the year.

Simons said Senate limits on spending, bad weather and other factors have 
cut the amount of anti-heroin work done in Colombia, but that will change 
in 2003 if full funding is granted by Congress.

Gilmore said the U.S. and Colombia should have hit coca and poppy fields.

"We should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time," he said. 
"Someone must account for this mess."

Outside the hearing, Anne Patterson, U.S. ambassador to Colombia, said 
there is a need to attack the cocaine and heroin supplies. She paused when 
asked what can be said to mothers and fathers of people who used heroin 
that came into the country after the change in emphasis.

"The complaints about heroin are the same we heard about cocaine in 2000," 
roared the diminutive ambassador who works in a dangerous country for U.S. 
citizens.

In 2000 "cocaine deaths were increasing, and there was a crack epidemic. 
Something needed to be done and we acted. There was a much bigger problem, 
and we had an opportunity. We had a chance at last to reduce cocaine 
supply, and we did it, and we are now focusing on heroin and remaining 
cocaine," Patterson said before being whisked away by an assistant.

The DEA's Guevara said some of the questions and conclusions were unfair.

"What can we say to the parents of the people who died on heroin in the 
interim? There is nothing we can say to give them solace," Guevara said. 
"Really, what can you say to them? We can't really understand what they are 
going through. But we are fighting drug trafficking, and it's unfair to 
criticize that."

U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, couldn't attend the hearing, but 
commented later in the day.

"The unfortunate part of today's hearing is that western Pennsylvania 
police officials testified because of our region's growing problem with 
heroin," Hart said. "This is a hearing everyone hopes didn't have to take 
place. But the fact remains that there is a growing drug problem, and it is 
destroying lives every day."

Hart, who last fall brought Walters of the White House National Office on 
Drug Control Policy to Highlands High School to talk with students and 
staff about drugs, commended Marcocci, Kuhns and Dupilka for their 
commitment to "eradicating our streets and our neighborhoods from drugs.

"One more life destroyed by drugs is too much," she said, "and as we in 
Congress do our part, it is reassuring to know there are so many 
hard-working law enforcement officials doing theirs."
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