D.E.A. CHIEF WARNS SENATE ON TRAFFICKERS IN MEXICO

WASHINGTON -- The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Thomas
Constantine, warned Wednesday that Mexican drug trafficking organizations
pose the worst criminal threat to the United States that he has seen in
nearly 40 years in law enforcement.

Speaking days before the Clinton administration deadline for certifying that
Mexico is cooperating in drug-fighting efforts, Constantine sketched a bleak
picture in testimony before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics
Control. "Unlike the American organized crime leaders, organized crime
figures in Mexico have at their disposal an army of personnel, an arsenal of
weapons and the finest technology that money can buy," Constantine said.
"They literally run transportation and financial empires, and an insight
into how they conduct their day-to-day business leads even the casual
observer to the conclusion that the United States is facing a threat of
unprecedented proportions and gravity."

But with the administration on the brink of declaring that Mexico deserves
certification, he did not address the central question of the level of
official cooperation that Mexico has offered to the United States. The State
Department must submit an annual report to Congress by Monday that lists
which countries have failed to cooperate in fighting drugs.

Clinton said last week on a brief visit to Mexico that it should not be
penalized for "having the courage to confront its problems" with illegal
drugs. But Wednesday, some senators who last year objected to seeing Mexico
certified found in Constantine's testimony fresh ammunition for another
challenge in Congress this year.

"My purpose here is not to bash Mexico," said the chairman of the caucus,
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "But the problem is too serious to ignore."
Constantine sidestepped a question about whether Mexico deserved to be
certified, talking instead about its decline in drug seizures, its pervasive
corruption and its failure to extradite any Mexicans sought by the United
States in connection with trafficking.

Other administration officials sought to play down any differences over
Constantine's bleak assessment, which drew heavily from reports by the DEA
agents in the field.

"Factually there's very little difference between any of us," said Gen.
Barry McCaffrey, the White House director of national drug policy, who
supports certifying Mexico. McCaffrey said U.S. and Mexican officials agreed
that drug-related crime in Mexico had grown rapidly and become more violent
and that its administration of justice was inadequate. "If you want to
protect the American people, you've got to work with Mexico for the next 15
years," McCaffrey said.

Rand Beers, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and
law-enforcement affairs, who also testified at the hearing, said Constantine
had been careful to distinguish between the government and organized crime.
"He was not saying it was the Mexican government that engaged in drug
trafficking," Beers said.

But Constantine made clear that Mexico had yet to staunch the flow of
cocaine, heroin and marijuana across its U.S. border.

He stressed that almost no traffickers of significance had been arrested and
or extradited. When his agency asked Mexico to help capture one trafficker,
Constantine said, officials replied, "It would be difficult to apprehend
this individual, because he was too dangerous to pursue, due to the number
of bodyguards and corrupt law-enforcement officials he employs." Constantine
described a corruption so widespread that even sensitive information shared
with elite anti-drug units reached traffickers. "Because of the unparalleled
levels of corruption within Mexican law-enforcement agencies with whom we mu
st work to insure that these individuals are brought to justice, our job is
made that much more difficult," Constantine said. "Until we can work with
our law-enforcement counterparts in a relationship that is free from
suspicion, the burden to bring the drug lords before a jury of their
victims' peers will remain largely ours."

The failures listed by Constantine led Grassley to ask what Mexico would
have to do to be refused recognition as an ally in the war against drugs.
Beers referred to Colombia, which was denied certification after President
Ernesto Samper had been accused of taking drug money for his re-election
campaign. By contrast, Beers said, Mexico had made "significant progress"
since President Ernesto Zedillo took office in December 1994.