MORE FUNDS URGED FOR DRUG WAR

WASHINGTON -- An FBI sting that resulted in the arrest of 10 San
Antonio law officers on drug trafficking charges was cited in
congressional testimony Thursday as progress in a decades-long drug
war that is drawing public skepticism.

U.S. and Texas law enforcement officials pleaded with Congress to
increase funding in the fight against narcotics traffickers along the
Southwest border.

Michael Scott with the Texas Department of Public Safety said federal
funding is critical "in order for the criminal justice system to
maintain a holding action" against the growing threat of Mexico-based
cartels that ship 65 percent of the U.S.-consumed cocaine across the
Southwest border.

"We may have declared war on an unconventional enemy that we cannot
completely defeat. However, we must not listen to the naysayers and
the advocates for legalization," Scott said in testimony submitted to
the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime.

"We must stay the course," said Scott, chief of the DPS Criminal Law
Enforcement Division.

Scott cited last week's FBI arrest of San Antonio law officers on
charges that they conspired to protect loads of cocaine through the
South Texas city as evidence that the power of drug kingpins to
corrupt law enforcement is moving north of the Rio Grande.

Those arrests were also used by Scott to illustrate the effectiveness
of law enforcement in combating problems associated with drug
trafficking.

Donnie Marshall, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration,
pointed to a cocaine shipment hidden in T-shirts that was seized in
Falfurrias and the confiscation of unusually large "black tar" heroin
loads in Del Rio and Laredo as evidence that Mexican drug cartels were
stepping up their efforts to move contraband over the Southwest border.

"We are making a difference. We will make a difference," Marshall told
the congressional subcommittee.

But an increasing number of critics have questioned the effectiveness
of a drug war that has been waged for three decades. Skepticism has
been heightened by the Oscar award-winning film "Traffic," which
questions the impact of law enforcement efforts that cost more than
$12 billion each year.

A report released Thursday by the National Research Council, "Informing
America's Police on Illegal Drugs: What we don't know keeps hurting us,"
found "scant data" to determine the effectiveness of federal interdiction
programs.

"It is unconscionable for this country to continue to carry out a
public policy of this magnitude and cost without any way of knowing
whether, and to what extent, it is having the desired result," said
Charles Manski, a Northwestern University economics professor and
chairman of the National Research Council committee that wrote the
report.

The chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, and
the ranking Democrat on the panel, Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va., called
the congressional oversight hearing to review anti-narcotics efforts
along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

Scott and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said that while drug
interdiction efforts were necessary, they sought more emphasis on
education and rehabilitation programs.

"I certainly think comprehensive discussion on treatment has an
equally prominent role to play," Lee said.

But Smith and law enforcement officers who testified before the
committee focused attention on the local impact the drug war is having
on Texas and other border states.

"An overwhelming amount of the drugs that destroy the lives of so many
Americans begins its journey to the United States by crossing the
U.S.-Mexico border," Smith said.

U.S. District Judge Royal Ferguson Jr. of Midland said the five
federal judicial districts along the border -- including two in Texas
and the others in New Mexico, Arizona and California -- handle 27
percent of all criminal cases filed in the United States.

Ferguson said the caseload in the Southwest border courts has
increased 161 percent since 1994.

"Washington cannot increase the crackdown on illegal drugs and
immigration along the Southwest border without more judges to allow
these cases to be prosecuted," Ferguson said.

According to the U.S. Customs Service, 293 million people, 89 million
automobiles and 4.5 million trucks crossed the Southwest border from
Mexico in fiscal year 2000, which ended Sept. 30.

The numbers of crossings have increased with relaxed trade laws with
Mexico, said John Varrone, a Customs Service assistant
commissioner.

"The windows of opportunity for would-be smugglers along the Southwest
border are staggering," Varrone said.

Scott blamed the North American Free Trade Agreement between the
United States, Canada and Mexico for increased narcotics
trafficking.

He said 75 percent of the commercial truck traffic entering the United
States from Mexico comes through Texas border ports. Of that, he said
roughly 5 percent to 10 percent are subjected to search or inspection.