Pubdate: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. Author: Anthony Boadle REPUBLICANS WANT CUBA BLACKLISTED FOR DRUGS WASHINGTON - Republican lawmakers accused the Clinton administration on Wednesday of turning a blind eye to drug trafficking in Cuba while seeking to restore relations with the communist-run island. But State Department, drug enforcement and military officials told them there was simply no evidence that Cuban leader Fidel Castro's government was involved in the narcotics trade. In fact, overflights of Cuban airspace by smugglers of Colombian cocaine and Jamaican marijuana have fallen this year, with the traffic shifting to Haiti, they said. Republicans were up in arms at a White House decision last week not to include Cuba in its list of major drug-producing and trafficking nations that need special monitoring. The list of 26 countries included Mexico, the route for 60 percent of the narcotics entering the United States, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Republican Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana told a drug policy subcommittee hearing that Cuba had turned to drug trafficking to prop up its sagging economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 46lorida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said drug smugglers could not use Cuban airspace or waters without Castro's knowledge. She said the White House was overlooking Cuban involvement because it wants to lift the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba to please U.S. pharmaceutical and agricultural business lobbies. ``We are unaware of significant quantities of drugs transiting Cuba's landmass,'' said Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Rand Beers. Drugs that do go to Cuba appear to be destined for a growing local and tourist market, Beers said. Cocaine Shipment Seized In 1998 A cargo of 7.2 tons of cocaine seized in the false walls of a ship container in the Colombia port of Cartagena in December 1998 was to be routed through Jamaica and Havana, but the final destination was Spain and not the United States, he said. The DEA's chief of international operations, William Ledwith, told the hearing his agency had ``no evidence indicating that high-ranking officials in the Cuban government were complicit in this shipment'' by a Spanish firm. ``The drugs were well enough concealed that Cuban officials might not have ever become aware of their presence, had the shipment not been seized in Cartagena,'' Ledwith said. U.S. officials say smugglers use Cuban airspace to drop drugs in coastal waters for pick-up by speedboats that carry the bales to the Bahamas for entry into the United States. But suspected drug flights over Cuba have dropped to 10 this year from 39 in 1998, said Rear Adm. Edward Barrett, head of the U.S. Southern Command's drug operation in Key West, Florida. Barrett said effective U.S. interception of drug planes and boats north of Cuba had resulted in smugglers moving their routes to Haiti, as shown by radar tracking of suspected flights. The Navy has also seen an increase in speedboat traffic from Colombia to Jamaica and Haiti this year, the admiral said. The boats use the windward passage between Cuba and Haiti to deliver drugs to the Bahamas and southeast United States, he said. Beers said Cuban authorities have cooperated with the U.S. Coast Guard this year exchanging intelligence by telex on suspects planes and vessels. Cuba has responded favorably to U.S. proposals to upgrade the telex link to a telephone hotline and add radio frequencies for use during ``coincidental'' operations, Beers said. The U.S. government plans to post a Coast Guard official in Havana to enhance cooperation with Cuba, he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea