DRUG CZAR: MORE ANTI-DRUG COORDINATION NEEDED ON SOUTHWEST BORDER

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The uphill fight against drug smuggling along the U.S.
border with Mexico will not improve much without an official to coordinate
efforts of 23 federal agencies, drug czar Barry McCaffrey told a House panel
Friday.

"This is nuts," McCaffrey said. "We've got to have somebody for the local
police and sheriff to go to."

Some lawmakers disagreed with McCaffrey on how much power such a coordinator
should have, however. Several urged for an official with the authority to
issue orders and direct resources for drug-fighting efforts, not just act as
a liaison among agencies.

"This is an invasion! I don't think we can say coordination is the answer,"
said Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii. "Somebody needs to be in charge. The
military might approach this from an overall command post."

McCaffrey said he sympathized with that view, but does not think it would be
possible to get Congress and the Clinton administration to agree. "We should
go for what we can achieve," he said.

What is possible, McCaffrey said, is appointing one official based in El
Paso, Texas, to coordinate among federal, state, local and Mexican
officials. Each border crossing post and each of the four states bordering
Mexico also should have coordinators, he said.

"You pulled back from having a coordinator with power and punch," criticized
Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark.

McCaffrey spoke at a hearing of the House Government Reform Committee's
subcommittee on drug issues. Despite recent gains in money, manpower and
technology, a large percentage of the illegal drugs in America travel over
the southwest border, McCaffrey said.

"We have not yet reached our purpose of significantly reducing the amount of
cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine coming across the border,"
McCaffrey said.

Federal agencies do a terrible job of sharing information about drug cartels
with other agencies and local police, McCaffrey said.

"We have the best intelligence system in the world, but at the end of the
day, it does not connect with local law enforcement," McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey also defended the United States' drug-fighting relationship with
Mexico, saying that although widespread corruption in local Mexican police
and courts could take "a generation" to get under control, U.S. authorities
are getting some results.

Authorities have reports that some Mexican drug smugglers who fail to get
drugs across the border are being killed by their cartel bosses, making the
smugglers even more dangerous and prone to violence, he said.

"It's never been more dangerous in Mexico for U.S. law enforcement and
Mexican law enforcement," McCaffrey said.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., criticized the practice of returning some
small-time drug smugglers to Mexico without prosecuting them.

"It sends the message, 'Make sure you drip the drugs into America, and not
only will we accept it, but we'll give you a free ride back," said Bilbray,
who represents parts of San Diego and its suburbs.

"We don't want to prosecute a rented dupe from Mexico," McCaffrey responded.
"We want to go after the drug kingpins."

"Someone who was rented to smuggle drugs is still a drug smuggler," Bilbray
replied. "The dupe is the American people."

McCaffrey said Congress should give state and local officials in border
areas more money to pay for fighting the flow of drugs and other contraband.

"We need to provide federal resources to back up the local and state forces,
because they're protecting all the rest of us from this threat," McCaffrey said.