DEA STARTS INQUIRY INTO CARIBBEAN OFFICE

WASHINGTON -- The Drug Enforcement Administration, responding to reports
that its Caribbean office routinely falsified claims of drug arrests and
seizures, said Tuesday it is reviewing the practices of that office. The
Miami Herald reported in its Tuesday editions that agents in the DEA's
office in San Juan, Puerto Rico, claimed credit for hundreds of arrests
that were made by police.

A former supervisor told the newspaper that 70 percent of the arrests the
DEA claimed from 1998 through 2000 were phony.

Thomas Hinojosa, a DEA spokesman, confirmed that the reporting practices of
the office are being reviewed.

Special Agent Waldo Santiago, spokesman for the DEA Caribbean office, said
he had no knowledge of supervisors pushing for inflated arrest numbers. He
added that for every statistic claimed by the office, there has to be an
arrest report.

"There's a system -- we can't just claim 100 arrests. You have to arrest
100 people."