MCCAFFREY: U.S. DRUG SURVEILLANCE IN ECUADOR KEY

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - U.S. anti-drug efforts in Ecuador will be key in
stopping the flow of illegal drugs through what has become one of the main
routes for Latin American drug smugglers, U.S. drug enforcement chief Barry
McCaffrey said Wednesday.

The White House's top anti-drug official told Reuters the use of U.S.
airplanes stationed at an Ecuadorean military base in the Pacific coast
town of Manta will help boost surveillance after the close of Howard Air
Force Base in Panama in May.

"Drug interdiction and monitoring is in the Eastern Pacific and that is the
principal route of drug smuggling right now, across ports in the Pacific''
said McCaffrey, who was in the South American country to study its
anti-drug efforts.

"Manta is in the right place. There is a giant empty space in the Pacific
now that Howard is gone, so I think Manta is in a very key place and is
also safer,'' McCaffrey said at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Quito.

McCaffrey arrived Tuesday and is scheduled to leave Wednesday for Venezuela
and the Caribbean island of Curacao.

While drug consumption in Ecuador is relatively low, Ecuador is one of the
main routes through which Bolivian, Peruvian and Colombian drug producers
ship their goods to Mexico, the United States and Europe, experts say.

"The threat in Ecuador is increasing ... Ecuador is becoming a major drug
smuggling point where paste goes from Peru to Colombia and then finishes as
cocaine and then comes into Ecuador by land, air and river, and then leaves
principally through Ecuadorean ports to the U.S.,'' McCaffrey said.

Furthermore, "drug smuggling results in corruption, violence and an
increase in drug consumption by children and the workforce in the country
that is undergoing this threat,'' he said.

Ecuador signed an agreement with the United States in February which will
allow surveillance airplanes to use Manta as their base of operations.

A similar plane crashed in Colombia last week, killing five U.S. soldiers
and two Colombians.

McCaffrey's visit coincides with government efforts to finance an anti-drug
plan proposed in June which would require $50 million.