TERROR FIGHT TRUMPS U.S. WAR ON DRUGS

Shift In Priorities After Sept. 11 Creates Surveillance 'Vacuum'

WASHINGTON - Down in the warm waters off Central America, the drug war is a
cat-and-mouse game that has gone on for decades.

But since Sept. 11, the game has changed because the Coast Guard has been
ordered back to American ports to guard the nation's borders from
terrorism. And intelligence reports suggest that large shipments of drugs
that would normally have been stopped in the eastern Pacific Ocean above
Colombia are amassing just south of the U.S. border in Mexico.

Coast Guard seizures of drugs are down 66 percent by weight from this time
last year. One official describes a "vacuum" of supervision in the stretch
of water where drug shipments are consolidated and at their largest.

There was one big bust on Christmas Day about 600 miles south of the
Mexican port of Acapulco that netted 20,000 pounds of pure cocaine, worth
more than $200 million.

But officials say even that seizure - the fourth-largest drug confiscation
in U.S. history - could be a sign that dealers are seeking to exploit what
they view as virtually free passage along their traditional shipping routes.

Now, U.S. law enforcement officials are bracing for what many predict will
be a flood of drugs crossing U.S. borders this year.

"It's hurting us," said Jack O'Dell, a spokesman for the Coast Guard.
"Terrorism is our highest priority, and we've had to reallocate our resources."

Coast Guard officials said they have by no means abandoned surveillance of
any drug routes and are still patrolling the eastern Pacific and Caribbean,
another prime drug route.

But they acknowledged that, barring additional funding and resources, they
cannot simultaneously fight a war on terrorism and a war on drugs at peak
levels.

"Our crews, who were already working 70-hour work weeks, are giving 15 to
20 percent more," O'Dell said. "We can do that, but you've got to wonder
how long it is before we wear out our equipment and our people."

Last year, the Coast Guard accounted for 61 percent of U.S. cocaine
seizures. And 92 percent of the Coast Guard's drug seizures occur in the
eastern Pacific Ocean.

While drug interdiction by the Coast Guard diminished, drug seizures by the
Customs Service at U.S. ports have soared since Sept. 11 as screening has
been stepped up at the nation's 301 airports, harbors and border crossings.
Analysts warn that those seizures account for much smaller stashes of drugs
than are in the waters south of Mexico. (Once in Mexico, the drug shipments
from Central and South America are broken down and shipped out in a dozen
different directions.)

"Traffickers would be stupid to not be adjusting their routes to some of
what's going on," said Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Customs Service. "Our
seizures are way up. But even inside the U.S., obviously, the FBI is
focusing full throttle on terrorism, not drug task forces."

Boyd said it was too early to determine the long-term effect of Sept. 11 on
drug trafficking. In the weeks after the attacks, the drug trade came to a
virtual standstill. Traffickers, wary of car and boat inspections,
bomb-sniffing dogs and increased, round-the-clock patrols, especially on
the U.S.-Mexico border, preferred to sit on their loads rather than risk
trying to get them across.

In recent weeks, though, drug trafficking across the border appears to have
increased to more typical levels. This worries U.S. officials who fear an
onslaught of cocaine, marijuana and heroin making its way north from
Central and South America.

"These guys have a business to run, they owe people money, they have to pay
their employees," Boyd said. "A lot of them have said, 'To hell with it,
we've got to get it across.'"

The new trends emerging from Sept. 11 are beginning to worry officials at
the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"The concern is, with U.S. efforts being focused away, it limits drug
interdiction," said Steven Casteel, assistant administrator for
intelligence at the DEA. "And philosophically, we need to be concerned
about the drug issue because it is so closely tied to terrorism."

Since state-sponsored terrorism began to decline in the 1980s, the DEA has
seen terrorist groups across the world - including al-Qaida - turn to drugs
to help fund their activities.

The National Security Agency similarly recognized the connection between
terrorist groups and the drug trade and began monitoring drug trafficking
as part of its intelligence-gathering. But now the NSA has also shifted its
focus - to preventing terrorism, aiding the war effort and finding al-Qaida
leader Osama bin Laden.

Some current and former intelligence and drug war officials warn that it's
time for the government to stop believing that it must choose between
fighting drugs and fighting terror and recognize that they are inextricably
linked.

"If you're a terrorist group, unless you're state-sponsored or have a
wealthy rich uncle, drugs are a good way to make money," said Larry
Johnson, former deputy director of the State Department's Office of
Counterterrorism. "Yet we still continue to deal with issues of terrorism
and narcotics as if they are isolated from each other. It's this whole
this-is-terrorism, this-is-drugs kind of thinking that has gotten us into
some of the problems we're having."

In the past two to three weeks, the Coast Guard has begun returning several
of its patrol boats to the eastern Pacific region, spurred by the Dec. 25
bust. But most of its boats will remain close to the nation's ports,
inspecting ships entering harbors and protecting bridges, refineries and
ports from terrorist threats.

"We're trying to do the job we had Sept. 10 and put a new emphasis on
duties we acquired on Sept. 11," said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Carter, a spokesman
for the Coast Guard's Pacific Fleet.

To the Coast Guard, this game's playing fields are thousands of miles of
ocean, and the farther away from home you play defense, the better off you are.

"But right now," Carter said, "our focus is guarding the goal line."