FEDERAL TASK FORCE CREATED TO AID DRUG WAR
Cooperation Between Agencies Sought

(Washington) - A glaring lack of federal teamwork in the war on drugs
spurred the Clinton administration Monday to create a task force to
ensure cooperation among U.S. anti-drug agencies.

In a report calling for interagency cooperation, the Clinton
administration said U.S. departments, unaware of what each was doing
to fight drugs, have needlessly duplicated efforts and shown mutual
"mistrust and confusion."

The study, which Congress mandated, called for the creation of a
federal task force of 13 representatives from U.S. agencies involved
in fighting narcotics.

U.S. anti-drug chief Barry McCaffrey and Attorney General Janet Reno,
in announcing the group's formation, said the lack of federal
cooperation has hindered the nation's effort to stop the flow of
illegal drugs. The illicit narcotics trade causes 52,000 U.S. deaths
per year and imposes $110 billion in annual social and health care
costs, the Clinton administration reported.

The task force, the Counterdrug Intelligence Coordinating Group, will
meet regularly to share top-secret information and develop strategies
to stop the flow of illegal drugs both into and within the United
States, said McCaffrey, who directs the Office of National Drug
Control Policy.

The data will be shared with state and local law-enforcement agencies,
which McCaffrey said are on the front lines in the battle against
drugs. But the data will first be distilled to ensure that
confidential information on the sources and methods of gaining the
data are not disclosed.

The federal agencies in the task force will be the departments of
Justice, Treasury, Transportation and State; the FBI; the U.S. Customs
Service; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Internal Revenue
Service; the Coast Guard; the National Security Council; and the
Office of National Drug Control Policy.

These agencies each perform vital functions in the drug war, but their
duties have been carried out largely independent of each other,
McCaffrey said. The task force will end this independence by placing
heightened emphasis on combining information and formulating joint
strategies, he said.

For example, the DEA, which investigates drug dealing, will now share
data with the Treasury Department, which investigates narcotics
traffickers who try to hide their ill-gotten money.

McCaffrey, widely referred to as the drug czar, called it
unconscionable that federal, state and local law enforcement lack a
shared database on drug seizures. Combining their information will
permit drug enforcement agents to have better knowledge of who, when
and where drugs are entering the United States, he said.

The creation of the counterdrug task force is the latest in a series
of similar initiatives McCaffrey has taken in recent months.

In September, he and the Treasury Department released a federal
strategy to combat money laundering.

In December, McCaffrey joined local law enforcement officials in
reporting that the federal government would increase its assistance to
31 High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas nationwide, including one in
Houston.