DRUG CHIEF NOW FOCUSING ON ECSTASY

WASHINGTON - The Drug Enforcement Administration is expanding its
operations in the Netherlands to curb that country's exports of the
fashionable but illegal drug Ecstasy, DEA Director Asa Hutchinson said Friday.

At the same time, the DEA is reducing its presence in Thailand, whose role
in world heroin traffic is declining, Hutchinson said. Both moves are part
of the DEA chief's efforts to do more with less as Washington focuses its
attention on the war on terrorism.

By shifting resources wisely, Hutchinson believes he can offset losses such
as the reassignment to counterterrorism duties last month of 400 FBI agents
who had been investigating drug dealers.

"More responsibility falls on our shoulders," he said.

Eighty percent of all Ecstasy used in the United States comes from the
Netherlands and arrives in mail packages and false-bottomed suitcases in
New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

Often it arrives disguised as vitamins. The small size of Ecstasy tablets
makes them easier to smuggle than marijuana.

Hutchinson will fly to Holland next week to confer with Dutch justice and
health officials. Until recently, his agency had only three personnel in
the country. He declined to say how many will be added, but noted that
Thailand had 34.