Source: Reuters Pubdate: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 BRAZIL'S NEW DRUG BOSS SEES THREAT FROM COLOMBIA BRASILIA, July 17 (Reuters)- Brazil needs to rethink its anti-drugs policy to fight an ``emerging mafia'' of drug-runners linked to Colombia's cocaine and heroin cartels, the head of Brazil's new anti-drugs office said on Friday. Judge Walter Maierovitch, appointed head of the new National Drugs Secretariat (SND) last month, also said Brazil would begin offering medical treatment to drug addicts to focus its police efforts on tackling traffickers. ``Up to now we have been fighting the war on the street corners and in the shantytowns. We have to fight the dirty money and the organised crime,'' Maierovitch told reporters after a meeting of state anti-narcotics chiefs. Maierovitch has long investigated the activities of Italian mafia members in Brazil and has been decorated by the Italian government for his efforts to fight organised crime. The Brazilian government announced last month the creation of the SND which will report directly to the top military aide of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, although the armed forces will not play a big role in drug prevention. Previously, Brazil's anti-drugs efforts were run by the Justice Ministry. As much as 8 percent of cocaine produced in Andean nations is believed to pass through Brazil. Nearly all of the world's cocaine is produced in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru-- all neighbours of Brazil. Maierovitch said traffickers had built up a complex network of transportation routes throughout the country and paid their Brazilian associates in cocaine which was then sold locally. Authorities were worried that heroin from Colombia was also beginning to pass through Brazil, he said. Amid increasing repression of the drug trade in Asia, Colombia has emerged as a producer of the poppies which produce opium and as an exporter of heroin. Maierovitch said heroine appeared to be passing through Brazil on its way to Europe, and that the kind of soil found in an area of northeast Brazil where marijuana production is booming was also ideal for opium poppies. ``Our approach to drugs has to be different now that we recognise the presence of international criminal cells who are responsible for the transportation of drugs,'' he said. ``We consider these groups to be Brazil's emerging mafia.'' The new drugs chief also said he would draw up regulatory legislation to give teeth to a recently approved money-laundering law as well new rules to crack down on electronic transactions involving drug cash and to speed up the seizure of property belonging drug traffickers. - --- Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)