NEW ARIZ. DEA CHIEF SETS SIGHTS ON MEXICO CARTELS

Elizabeth Kempshell wants to team up with state and local agencies to
crack down on Mexican drug cartels.

The new head of Drug Enforcement Administration's office in Arizona
also wants to dismantle crime syndicates from top to bottom.

Kempshell, 45, succeeds Timothy Landrum as special agent in charge.
He was promoted to the field office in Los Angeles this year.

Kempshell grew up in rural Georgia and went to an all-girls college
to study nursing. She turned to law enforcement when her only brother
was killed by a drunk driver.

She takes office amid climbing marijuana seizures in Arizona. In
2005, Arizona surpassed Texas for the amount of marijuana seized. At
best, counter-drug teams seize 10 percent of the marijuana crossing
the border and far lower percentages of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

We sat down with Kempshell to find out her plans for Arizona.

Question: How does Texas compare with what you expect to see here in Phoenix?

Answer: Texas has a massive amount of border to take care of and most
of the traffickers worked close to the border. . . . Here, it's a
smaller area compared to Texas and for the major organizations, their
headquarters are about 200 miles into Sonora.

Q: What did that teach you?

A: It really gave me a glimpse of how the transportation of drugs
into the United States has changed in the last 25 years. The Mexican
traffickers are now the primary organization responsible for bringing
drugs into the United States.

Q: Describe your duties.

A: I supervised what we call of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement
Strike Force, which included state and local agencies. What made that
so unique is that it brought together all the resources under one
roof, so you didn't have to call somebody and say, "Let me introduce myself."

Q: What's your top priority for Phoenix?

A: I want to focus on the major Mexican traffickers who are using
Arizona as a gateway into the United States and all of North America.
. . . My focus for this area is to attack those organizations, to
completely disrupt and dismantle them. Not just going after and
picking off one or two people at a time. I want to do significant
investigations that take out the whole organization from top to bottom.

Q: What is a unique challenge to Arizona?

A: You've got organizations here that just don't stop here. They move
out to California, Chicago, the East Coast and Atlanta, and that's a
challenge in itself. You don't have organizations just operating here
so the majority of the drugs don't stay here a very long time. It
comes in and it goes out. I've got to destroy that infrastructure
they've built here in Arizona, and that's one of the unique challenges.

Q: The attack in Cananea last spring, which left 25 dead, sent a lot
of shock waves and a sense that border violence is escalating. Is it
a spasm or a trend?

A: There was a confrontation between the Gulf and the Federation
(cartels) and that spiked the violence. From the intelligence and the
investigations that we've been doing, we've seen that there has been
an alliance formed between the Federation and the Gulf. As long as
you have this area, the southwest border, being responsible for a
significant portion of the drugs coming into the United States and
all that money involved, you're going to see violence.

Q: Which is more dangerous for Arizona, a truce or a partnership?
Rather than going after each other and disrupting each other's
smuggling routes, they're now teaming up and can bring even more
resources to the effort. What kind of problems does that present?

A: Any time you have two significant drug trafficking organizations
teaming up, there's a challenge. The same way you have the federal
agencies teaming up their resources, we make a much stronger united
attack against the drug trafficking organizations. And we're going to
face similar problems.

Q: What hurts cartels most? Cutting off their money supply, their guns, what?

A: Any disruption hurts them, but what they're in the business for is
the money. They're not into it to satisfy people's habits. They're
into it for the money. And if we can take out their money, keep them
from making profits on what they're selling, deny them their
revenues, then we've made a big impact.

Q: What cooperation do you get and need from authorities in Mexico?

A: The relationship that the United States currently has with Mexico
is unprecedented. President Calderon has demonstrated time and time
again since he took office in December his commitment to go after the
significant drug traffickers. The proof of that is when he extradited
Osiel Cardenas (founder of Los Zetas and Gulf cartel leader) when I
was in Texas. I was part of the team that took him off of the plane.
That was a monumental time in my career. . . . When he saw us with
our DEA jackets on as we stepped onto the plane, we saw him just look
down and shake his head. He had no idea he was in the United States.

Q: There have been some high-level discussions between the U.S. and
Mexican governments about a direct aid package to Mexico to help it
fight the drug war. What does it entail and what should it entail?

A: I'm just focused on what we're doing right here in Arizona and the
relationship with Mexico in helping us do our jobs here in Arizona.

Q: How and why did smuggling shift to make Arizona the biggest
marijuana route and what can you do to combat that shift?

A: Down in Tucson, we seized more than 1 million pounds of marijuana
this year, and that's the most they've seized in the last three or
four years. So it has been on the increase. Why, I wouldn't venture to guess.

Q: Arizona has become the busiest marijuana smuggling route in recent
years. Does that shift reflect that more dangerous drugs are coming
over the Arizona border?

A: Not with this organization here. These agents are ready to do
their job. They have the right focus and they know who the major
traffickers are that are bringing dope into this area. Agents in
Phoenix, Tucson and all along the border are working focused
investigations against the most significant traffickers. I have all
the confidence in the world they're going to be able to dismantle and
disrupt these organizations.

Q: Do you have the tools you need?

A: I want to combine resources with the other agencies, including
state and local, where we are a force to be reckoned with.

Q: Do you have the tools you need?

A: I want to combine resources with the other agencies, including
state and local, where we are a force to be reckoned with.

Q: From all your experience with different forms of narcotics, have
you formed an opinion about which is the most dangerous?

A: Right now, what gives me the most concern is meth, because that is
what is moving so rapidly across the country and the effects of the
addiction are so devastating. The other one that gives me a lot of
concern are kids getting pharmaceuticals over the Internet without a
true doctor-patient client relationship. If you type "Vicodin no
prescription required" and you can get, you know, 1.4 million hits.

Q: Does the trafficking itself make any one more dangerous?

A: Those two are horrible situations, but the other one that we
continue to highlight is marijuana, because people who try marijuana
are apt to try other drugs. People think it's a harmless drug. It's
not harmless. It's a gateway drug.

Q: So many drugs cross the border despite all the DEA's efforts, and
only a small fraction gets stopped. How do you avoid getting frustrated?

A: Every little success means a lot. Every time you take down an
organization. Every time you do an undercover buy. Those are the
successes that keep you coming back. It's an unbelievable feeling
when you work a case for a year, and done wire intercepts and
undercover buys and surveillance and untold number of hours and you
can put those handcuffs on somebody and you stop that organization
from bringing those drugs into the United States.

Q: Talk about what going on with meth labs and where the proceeds go.

A: I do know that the majority of labs have all been moved down to
Mexico, and a number of the precursors come from other countries.
Experience with other investigations tells me that we know a
significant amount of the proceeds generated from narcotics go back
to the FARC (a Colombian paramilitary group declared a terrorist
organization), and that's something we have to be mindful of in our
investigations. That's why it's so significant that we follow the
money. We need to know where these funds are going. That is a part of
our national security. We need to make sure that we're not only
following the drugs but the money that's brought back.