NEW HEAD OF DEA COMES FROM WITHIN

President Clinton has picked a veteran agent to head the Drug
Enforcement Administration, Justice Department officials said Tuesday.

Donnie Marshall, 52, is widely expected to win confirmation from the
Senate and would be the first administrator in the agency's 25-year
history to come from within. He has been serving as acting
administrator since the July retirement of Thomas Constantine.

Attorney General Janet Reno announced his pending nomination at a
conference of police chiefs in Charlotte, N.S. Reno also said Clinton
would name Julio Mercado as the DEA's deputy administrator, the
agency's No. 2 position. If confirmed, Mercado, 50, now special agent
in charge of the agency's office in Dallas, would be the agency's
highest-ever ranking Hispanic, DEA agents said.