IN DADE, ASHCROFT TOUTS RIVER COCAINE SEIZURES

Operation Riverwalk, a coordinated law enforcement effort against drug
trafficking on the Miami River, is making cocaine so "scarce" in South
Florida that "even undercover drug enforcement officers are having trouble
finding cocaine to buy," Attorney General John Ashcroft said in Miami on
Monday.

"The market tells the story," Ashcroft told reporters, saying the price of
a kilogram of cocaine has jumped to a high of about $23,000 from a low of
$15,000 since Operation Riverwalk began in February.

But questioned by The Herald, no city, state or federal law enforcement
agency could confirm its undercover officers have encountered difficulty
buying cocaine.

"They've noticed no changes, neither an increase in price nor a reduction
in availability," Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss said after checking
with narcotics detectives.

"We have seen an increase in price," said Joe Kilmer, spokesman for the
Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami. As for diminished availability,
he added: "It's difficult to say at this time. I believe [Ashcroft] may
have been briefed by FDLE on that particular topic. You'll have to talk to
FDLE."

Paige Patterson-Hughes, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement, said the agency has some intelligence indicating cocaine
prices are rising. But as for undercover purchases getting tougher, she
came up empty: "My director said he doesn't have any information on that."

Spokesman Dan Nelson said Ashcroft got his information about undercover
cocaine purchases from the DEA and Gov. Jeb Bush's office.

"They pointed out to us that there's been a 45 percent decrease in the
amount of cocaine seized along the Miami River this year compared to last
year," Nelson said. "That's what we were talking about. We were focusing on
Operation Riverwalk."

Cocaine seizures on the Miami River for the first six months of 2001
dropped by nearly 45 percent from the same time period in 2000, according
to DEA numbers provided to Ashcroft. In raw numbers, that translates to
2,514 pounds this year, compared with 4,355 last year.

Law officers say the smaller seizures are evidence that Operation
Riverwalk, with its mandatory searches of incoming freighters, is driving
drug trafficking away from the river. The area is "a place of vitality"
that deserves less crime and more economic development, Ashcroft said.

"The drug smugglers are on the run," he said. "Fewer freighters carrying
illegal drugs are on the Miami River. . . . Perhaps more than anything
else, Operation Riverwalk reestablishes the rule of law in that corridor of
commerce."

Ashcroft spoke with reporters during an afternoon news conference at the
DEA office. He spent the morning in an Operation Riverwalk briefing
attended by a host of federal, state and local law agencies.

Ashcroft, making his first official visit to South Florida, also toured the
river by boat and helicopter.

He is scheduled to meet today with Cuban-American leaders, who will press
him for a commitment to indict Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the 1996
Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down, which killed four Miami men.

Ashcroft refused to answer questions on that topic Monday, although he
praised the federal prosecutors who got convictions against five Cuban
spies last month