COCAINE WAR'S NEGLECTED FRONT: CHEMICALS

Refining Process Requires Large Shipments That Can Be Tracked

MANAUS, Brazil -- Although the Clinton administration has declared a risky
$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 needed to refine cocaine from
coca leaves continue to flow unhindered to drug labs. Each country involved
blames another for the problem.

Widespread Involvement

"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 chemicals, known as precursors, are well-known. The precursors are
usually shipped by land or sea, and their bulk and modest value make it
hard to hide them.

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 Ram(acu)rez Acu=F1a, 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
Ram(acu)rez, 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, had 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 are often 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.

State Department Report

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."

Mexico, the chief transit point for cocaine that's headed for the United
States, limits precursor chemicals to entry and exit through 12 points.
Mexico has pressed, unsuccessfully, for the United States to adopt similar
restrictions=2E

Under federal law, U.S. exporters of 22 regulated precursor chemicals must
notify the DEA 15 days before export and must list the recipient. A
speedier process covers exports to longstanding customers.

U.S. chemical manufacturers say they have worked with the DEA to identify
"warning indicators" such as uncommon routes, unusual delivery times or
requests and unfamiliar buyers.

"They are more aggressive now than I have ever seen. The illegitimate
customers are getting a lot more savvy," said Marybeth Kelliher, senior
manager of international trade for the American Chemical Council, whose 193
members boast 90 percent of U.S. manufacturing capacity.

Shipments Tracked

Progress is being made in controlling one key precursor, potassium
permanganate -- a chemical used in water purification that is produced in
only a dozen or so countries. Paperwork on any shipment greater than 97
pounds is shared with authorities. The DEA says more than 35 million pounds
was tracked between April 1999 and September 2000, with 51 shipments
stopped totaling almost 6.6 million pounds, with 35 arrests. The effort is
believed to have cut cocaine production sharply in Bolivia.

One weakness continues to be brokers: legitimate intermediaries in
international trade who are harder to regulate because they are not the
chemicals' final users. They often operate in free-trade zones such as
Manaus and elsewhere, where the DEA says controls are weaker.

"The real problem is that what you are really doing is controlling licit
trade," said a State Department official who's working to prevent the
diversion of precursor chemicals and requested anonymity. "A lot of
countries don't like to provide information on what they consider licit trade."

Morris Thompson of the Mercury News Mexico City Bureau contributed to this
report.