DEA RESOURCES ARE STRETCHED THIN

WASHINGTON - Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, federal law
enforcement agencies have been locked in a "battle of resources" between
fighting terrorism and continuing to investigate crime, the nation's top
drug enforcer says.

Asa Hutchinson, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Tuesday
that he is concerned that efforts to stop drug trafficking will be hindered
by two recent moves: the FBI's pullout from several DEA-FBI drug task
forces, and a reassignment of Coast Guard resources that has left the USA
vulnerable to drug smuggling from Caribbean routes.

Hutchinson said FBI agents have been pulled off drug investigations from
Boca Raton, Fla., to Boston to Detroit to work on the massive terrorism
investigation, and the transfer has forced his agency to "pick up the slack."

"When the dust settles" in the inquiries into the anthrax attacks and the
terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Hutchinson
said, he expects officials to determine what role, if any, the FBI will
have in large-scale drug investigations in the future.

In the 1980s, the FBI lobbied for and was given joint jurisdiction with the
DEA to investigate drug offenses.

But in the past 2 decades, Congress has piled more responsibilities on the
FBI, from tracking down deadbeat dads who owe child support to patrolling
Indian reservations.

Now, terrorism has given the FBI dual roles: Root out terrorists and their
associates here, and thwart future attacks rather than wait for them to occur.

"They (the FBI) are clearly spread thin," Hutchinson said at a breakfast
meeting with reporters. "It remains to be seen whether there's going to be
a functional shift or whether it's followed by a formal reworking" of the
relationship between the FBI and DEA.

FBI officials declined to comment on Hutchinson's remarks.

The Coast Guard also has shifted its resources to combat terrorism. To
increase its ability to guard U.S. ports, it has taken most of its
resources away from drug interdiction, particularly in the Caribbean,
Hutchinson said.

Acknowledging that the "war on drugs" has taken a back seat to the "war on
terrorism," he said, "I think we are holding our own."

But, he added, "We don't want the Caribbean to go back to the way it was in
the '80s. We don't want to give a window of opportunity for the traffickers."

He said he has raised these concerns with Congress, but "it's a battle of
resources right now."

"For the long term," he said, "we need to balance this out and devote the
resources we need" to terrorism and drug enforcement.