AS WAR ON DRUGS CONTINUES, CHEMICALS USED TO MAKE THEM FLOW FREELY

`Precursors' Used In Latin American Labs

MANAUS, Brazil --Although the Clinton administration has declared a
risky and controversial $1.3 billion war against Latin America's
cocaine trade, it isn't fighting on what may be the easiest and most
promising front.

The administration is providing massive military and other aid to
help Colombia and other Andean nations stop coca growing, processing
and trafficking, but experts say the chemicals, or ``precursors,''
needed to refine cocaine from coca leaves continue to flow unhindered
to drug labs. Each country involved blames another for the problem.

``I don't remember in the past decade a systematic and massive
campaign in South America to control precursors,'' said Roger
Rumrill, a Peru-based expert in Andean narcotics production. ``This
is a contraband product, and many people are involved, ranging from
businessmen to the government -- including police.''

In theory, it's much easier to interdict shipments of the chemicals
used to make cocaine than it is to ferret out cocaine smuggling. The
companies that make the precursors are well-known. The precursors are
usually shipped by land or sea, and their bulk and modest value make
them hard to hide.

So why not declare war on 55-gallon drums of sulfuric acid, acetone,
potassium permanganate and other chemicals chugging up the Amazon?

Not so fast. Global free-trade rules permit little regulation of
chemicals that have legitimate uses. And the same chemicals that are
used to refine cocaine have many legitimate uses, including water
purification, so shipments can't be seized unless authorities have
reason to believe they're intended for use in making cocaine.

The United States has asked South American countries to document
who's using these chemicals. The effort to track precursors hasn't
been very disciplined, however, and seizures remain meager, despite
years of encouragement by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
and the State Department.

U.S. anti-drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey acknowledged in an interview
that effective measures to keep precursor chemicals out of the hands
of cocaine producers ``ain't there yet.'' As proof the initiative
``has been a failure,'' McCaffrey noted that Colombia produced 520
metric tons of cocaine last year.

To make cocaine, jungle drug-lab operators need lots of kerosene.
It's poured with water into plastic-lined pits filled with leaves
from the coca plant. Barefoot workers stomp the mixture into a mushy
paste.

Next, sulfuric acid and potassium permanganate are added to dry and
condense the paste.

Solvents such as acetone are then used to dissolve the cocaine base,
which is poured or pressed through cloth to yield snowy white and
highly addictive cocaine hydrochloride crystals.

Colombian Defense Minister Luis Ramirez Acuna, interviewed in
Brazil's steamy Amazon capital of Manaus, said precursor chemicals
are shipped to clandestine cocaine labs via canoes and riverboats on
``water highways'' in the Amazon River system in Brazil and the
Orinoco River system in Venezuela.

Not so, said Venezuelan Defense Minister Gen. Ismael Hurtado, who,
like Ramirez, was in Manaus for a regional military conference.

``Let's not forget that one of the biggest exporters of these
chemicals is the United States, not Venezuela or Brazil,'' Hurtado
said. He said his country, a major petroleum exporter and a leading
manufacturer of solvents used to make cocaine, has been cracking down
hard on precursors.

Venezuelan police interdicted shipments of 75 tons of potassium
permanganate last year, according to government figures, plus 1,585
gallons of solvents. This year seizures are running lower, possibly
because of tougher import regulations.

Colombia says it sidelined 522,000 gallons of liquid precursors and
almost 523 pounds of solid precursors this year. Colombian police
closed 27 companies and indicted 59 people for precursor-related
offenses.

Colombia blames Brazil, home to South America's biggest chemical
industry, particularly the vast free-trade zone in Manaus, where
legitimately imported chemicals often are repackaged and diverted to
upriver drug labs.

According to Mauro Sposito, the head of Brazil's anti-drug operations
in the Amazon region, 256 companies in Manaus import chemicals that
also could be used to make cocaine for their manufacturing operations.

Sao Paulo, in southern Brazil, also produces lots of precursor
chemicals, but they're trucked to Bolivia, not shipped by river. So
Sposito sees no Brazilian precursor problem. ``Up to now, we haven't
had a single apprehension of chemical products (on the rivers),'' he
said of his force of 180 men and 18 patrol boats.

The U.S. State Department, in its March 2000 report on international
narcotics, said Argentina and Brazil are the leading makers of
precursors. Paraguay and Bolivia are transit points for the
chemicals, it said, and Brazil, Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador are
increasingly the hosts of clandestine cocaine labs.

``Everybody needs to do more in this area, needs to be more aware of
chemical control as a potentially potent law enforcement tool,'' said
a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official charged with fighting
the diversion of precursor chemicals, who asked not to be identified.
``We can include ourselves in this area, too.''