INTERVIEW: DAVID ISRAELSON

David Israelson Is More Than 18 Months Into His Job As North Texas' Drug Czar.

In January 1999, the former FBI agent became the area's director of a new
kind of drug-fighting cooperative called the North Texas High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area task force, or HIDTA. More than 40 state, federal and
local law enforcement agencies in the Dallas-Fort Worth region have
contributed their most experienced drug fighters to the HIDTA, which has
its headquarters in Irving.

The HIDTA is one of 31 similar operations set up across the country that
fall under Gen. Barry McCaffrey's Office of National Drug Control Policy.

As director of one of the nation's newest HIDTA offices, Mr. Israelson's
first task last year was to launch a "threat assessment" of drug use and
trafficking patterns throughout a 10-county area. That first-of-its-kind
report is now being distributed to local congressional leaders.

Mr. Israelson brings considerable experience to his task. He served for 29
years as an FBI agent, spending much of that time in the Dallas-Fort Worth
area. He has played a role in a number of major drug investigations,
acquiring expertise in undercover surveillance, firearms and violent crime
along the way.

Dallas Morning News Staff Writer Todd Bensman questioned him recently about
the drug assessment report and HIDTA's progress. Following are excerpts:

Q: HIDTA's assessment of drug use and trafficking concluded that North
Texas is a land of relatively high drug use and an important shipment
point. What drugs and how many are being moved, and where are they coming from?

A: The majority of them are coming from Mexico. Certainly the cocaine,
heroin and large amounts of methamphetamine and marijuana come directly
from Mexico. A lot of it stays here, and a substantial amount goes to the
East Coast, to the New York area or to the Chicago area for distribution.

The Mexican organizations have become very proficient in doing this. They
have friends and family on both sides of the Texas/Mexico border, and
they've become experts in crossing it. Mexican drug organizations have
sprung up as very sophisticated entities who use violence to enforce their
activities, make tremendous amounts of money and have taken over the
transportation side of things, as well as the distribution.

We certainly don't see one organization that has control over this area.
It's very much open territory as far as the Mexican cartels. They all have
involvement and influence here. The most frequently used drugs of
consequence are cocaine and crack cocaine. The methamphetamine and
amphetamine drugs, which are both manufactured locally and in Mexico, are
manufactured in labs that can be set up most anywhere these days.

As far as heroin, locally we get primarily Mexican black tar heroin, but
also occasionally we see white heroin from Colombia. We've had heroin pass
through here from Southeast Asia, such as Burma and Thailand, and southwest
Asia over in Turkey and those parts of the world.

The Dallas-Fort Worth region is in a central position as far as drug
trafficking for a number of reasons. The physical proximity to Mexico is
probably the most important. This is a major transportation corridor for
all types of commerce, including passenger traffic through the airports and
bus stations and a lot of freight that is hauled in trucks, especially with
the increased flow of traffic resulting from NAFTA.

We see a tremendous number of truckloads of freight coming up through I-35
and headed for Chicago and so forth. We have four major interstates here.

If it doesn't come directly from the Southwest border with Mexico, it comes
through Houston. Virtually everything that comes through Houston comes
through here. For example, with our cocaine, most of it goes to Houston and
is warehoused and distributed from there.

A significant amount may go through East Texas. We have a satellite office
in East Texas now because of the amount of traffic. They're using secondary
roads.

Our problem is broader than the problem that exists, for instance, in San
Antonio or El Paso. Those areas are concerned with transportation across
the border, smuggling and interdiction of those loads.

Our area ... has a significant local distribution of drugs and money
laundering. Of equal concern to us is the violent crime that is associated
with drug trafficking.

Q: Your assessment says that cocaine is the drug that people in North Texas
are seeking the most treatment for, that we've seen a 200-percent increase
in crack cocaine-related deaths since 1995. Conventional wisdom holds that
crack in general has been in decline for years. What's actually happening?

A: This report is based on input from all of the law enforcement agencies
and community treatment programs and all the other data available from this
region. .... From what we have seen ... it appears that cocaine is once
again on the rise. It peaked in about 1991, and it dropped off fairly
significantly after that. The number of investigations and arrests for
cocaine possession and use have dramatically increased over the last two
years. The number of cases that the DEA is working has significantly
increased since 1998.

I'm not saying we have more crack cocaine use because a lot of what we see
involves transportation through this area to other parts of the country.
But crack cocaine is still a significant problem, and it's one that
continues to be of great concern to us.

The trend, as far as the greatest increase in drugs, appears to be first
methamphetamine. It is literally exploding, not only in this area but
throughout the Midwest. It's always been a major problem in California and
along the West Coast.

The production has changed significantly in the last few years. We're
seeing a lot of it now manufactured in Mexico and distributed by the
Mexican organizations that also traffic in cocaine, marijuana and sometimes
heroin. So they're considered poly-drug organizations.

The increase has been most significant in the Midwest, states like Kansas
and Nebraska. Now we're starting to see in this area a similar increase.

Heroin is another drug that is changing in the nature of how it's being
used. The Mexican black tar heroin is a higher purity. It's now being
manufactured in capsule form where it can be swallowed or inhaled [rather
than injected]. And it's being used in the affluent suburban areas instead
of the inner city, which is kind of the traditional heroin platform. It's
probably one of the least-used drugs but one of the most dangerous because
of the deadly effect of overdosing.

Q: Your assessment paints a pretty dark picture. LSD use is up.
Methamphetamine use is up. Heroin is alive and well. What's your combat
strategy?

A: We have a very sophisticated intelligence center, which is designed to
bring information together that exists among federal, state and local law
enforcement to identify who's responsible for the trafficking and what
methods they're using. We identify through the intelligence information
what's taking place and then we coordinate how we're going to attack it to
the best effect.

We've brought together probably the most experienced group of drug officers
that's ever existed in this region into one coordinated effort. We have
task forces that are dedicated to specific areas. Some just work in Collin
and Denton counties. Others work just in the Fort Worth and western
regions. Others are specializing just in some of the Mexican cartel
organizations. Some of the task forces specialize in money laundering and
violent crime.

So by bringing together these people ... we think it's going to have a very
excellent effect as far as reducing the drug problem in this area. The FBI,
DEA, Dallas Police Department, U.S. Customs, Texas Department of Public
Safety ... everybody has valuable information and the ability to share it
in the drug world is the most important aspect.

If you investigate a major organization, and frequently we use wire taps to
do this, you gain tremendous amounts of intelligence as far as what's
taking place and who's involved. Many times in the past, this information
remained with one agency that was involved in it.

Now that information is available through our intelligence center to any
law enforcement agency in this region to better target their crime problem.
In these days of reduced budgets, we have to do it smarter.

Q: How would you respond to those who might argue that your assessment is
made to sound so dire so that HIDTA can justify future funding requests
from Congress, to perpetuate itself?

A: We have reported in the survey what others have told us. The information
comes from more than 100 law enforcement and community organizations who
have told us what their opinion is. The HIDTA was formed and approved based
in large part on the needs within the community.

It is a program that has to get congressional approval, so the
congressional leaders believed there was a significant drug problem in this
region to justify it. The federal and local law enforcement agencies that
have contributed people and who make up our executive board feel that it is
important and a necessity here.

Q: Prices for these drugs are falling while the purity is rising, according
to your report. Doesn't this suggest that anti-drug efforts are less than
effective?

A: If significant effects of law enforcement are being felt by a drug
organization, it will be reflected in the availability of drugs and then
the price and purity, so it is certainly something we watch. We have seen
in this area, for instance with heroin, an increase in the level of purity
and a decrease in price. That tells us it's readily available, that there
is more of this drug available.

We look at it, but we don't see a direct cause-and-effect relationship.
There are other factors involved, such as the availability overseas that we
can't really affect.

With methamphetamine, the purity has decreased from 57 percent in 1997 to
about 23 percent now. We have been targeting methamphetamine. It's
currently about $4,000 to $6,000 a pound. Hopefully, we'd like to see the
purity go way down and the price go way up.

But sometimes, even with the best efforts of law enforcement a8093 we can
have a tremendous case and prosecute a number of organizations a8093 and
it could still go the other way. For sure, it's just a casual indicator of
what's happening.

Q: Can you quantify HIDTA's success so far?

A: We're attempting to do that. Part of the program is to have very
specific goals and objectives each year and then evaluate our ability to
meet those objectives. For a six-month period of time from June to December
1999, we arrested more than 280 people involved in drug trafficking or
violent crime related to drugs. We had a number of major cases during that
period, including 14 that involved ... [wire taps].

When we initially began operations last year, we had identified 22 drug
organizations operating in this area. As a result of our investigative
efforts, we had identified over 80 that were active by the end of the year.
We were successful in putting 62 percent of them out of business. That's
either the complete dismantling of the organization by the prosecution of
all the people involved or disrupting the organization by taking key people
out, even though it may continue to exist. It would have to restructure.

They never go away. They just re-form. But we thought to expand our base of
knowledge as to what's going on here and then to take out over half of them
was pretty good.