Pubdate: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 Source: Seattle Times (WA) Copyright: 1999 The Seattle Times Company Contact: http://www.seattletimes.com/ Author: Cassandra Burrell, The Associated Press COCAINE TRAFFICKERS LEARN TO FOOL DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS, OFFICIAL SAYS WASHINGTON - Drug traffickers have discovered a new chemical process that will allow them to slip cocaine past drug-sniffing dogs and the eyes of casual observers, the White House's director of drug-control policy says. Adding charcoal and other chemicals to cocaine will transform it into a black substance that has no smell and does not react when subjected to the usual chemical tests for cocaine, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey told a Senate subcommittee yesterday. "They turn this stuff into black brick, but you can mold it into something that looks like metal moldings," McCaffrey said. "The dog won't smell it. ... It doesn't smell; it doesn't react to chemical tests the same way." Once the drug arrives at its destination, high-level drug traffickers use acetone or another chemical to turn it back into cocaine paste. "So you have a very clever new initiative on the part of drug smuggling," McCaffrey told reporters after testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee's panel on emerging threats and capabilities. Traffickers, usually from Colombia, also have moved cocaine in other colors, including red, yellow and blue, he said. Authorities also have seen altered cocaine that looks like transparent sheets of acetate. Over the past year, law enforcement authorities have begun to seize shipments of the altered drug in several countries, including Spain, Albania and the Netherlands. U.S. authorities are seeing limited amounts in this country, McCaffrey said. Drug traffickers are relying on other new technologies, McCaffrey said. For example, "super go-fast boats" - vessels that can easily outpace Coast Guard cutters - are being manufactured on the west coast of Colombia to be used as drug transports in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. "One such boat is reportedly capable of carrying a two-ton payload at high speeds," McCaffrey said. "It's now become the principal tool of drug smuggling now employed by these criminal organizations. It's the major tool." U.S. officials have come up with ways to stop the boat, but McCaffrey told reporters, "I shouldn't tell you what those things are. Some of them will start showing up in the coming weeks, and they're going to work." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D