U.S. DRUG CZAR SAYS ARREST HIGHLIGHTS WIDE PROBLEM

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The arrest on drug smuggling charges of the wife
of a top officer at the U.S. Embassy in Colombia shows how pervasive drug
abuse has become in society, White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey said Monday.

Laurie Ann Hiett, wife of Col. James Hiett who headed U.S. military
operations in Colombia until last week, was accused last week of smuggling
15.8 pounds of cocaine into the United States.

"This underscores the problem," McCaffrey said. "Drug abuse and its
consequences are not confined to a subsection of the population."

McCaffrey was responding to questions after a lecture at the Lyndon B.
Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.

McCaffrey said drugs were a problem throughout "all 34 nations of the
hemisphere." The problem is "severe and getting worse in South America,
ours is severe and getting better."

Last week McCaffrey told a U.S. congressional subcommittee that Colombia
faced an "emergency situation" caused by dramatically increased cocaine
production, a major economic crisis and violence from guerrilla groups.

Hiett's wife was released by a New York court last Thursday on $150,000 bail.

She is accused of sending six packages of pure cocaine with a street value
of as much as $230,0000 to addresses in New York City through the embassy
mail service, identifying the contents on U.S. customs forms as books,
candy, a T-shirt, candles or coffee, according to a report in Saturday's
New York Times.

Hiett, 36, has admitted mailing the packages but has said she did not know
what they contained, the newspaper said.

The packages were marked with her own name but Hiett said she sent them at
the request of Jorge Alfonso Ayala, an embassy chauffeur for the past 15
years who is now being sought by Colombian authorities, the newspaper said.

Ayala, who is Colombian, told investigators in June that Hiett "abused
cocaine" and that he helped her buy it, according to a criminal complaint
filed Thursday in Federal Court in Brooklyn which was cited by the Times.

Col. Hiett headed U.S. military anti-drug operations in Colombia until last
week, when he stepped aside voluntarily.