DEA; MEXICAN DRUG TRAFFIC ON RISE

WASHINGTON - A top drug enforcement official testified today that
the penetration of Mexican criminal organizations into the United
States has increased dramatically over the past five years.

The testimony by Thomas Constantine, chief of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, came just days ahead of an expected certification by
President Clinton that Mexico has been fully cooperating with American
counter-narcotics activities.

Without commenting on whether Mexico should be certified, Constantine
said the power of Mexican criminal organizations has grown "virtually
geometrically" over the past five years.

Constantine and other administration officials testified before a
Senate panel that monitors drug enforcement issues.

The administration is required under law to issue report cards each
year on the 30 or so countries that either produce drugs or are used
as transit points for drug shipments.

During a visit to Mexico earlier this month, Clinton indicated that
Mexico will be given high marks for its counter-narcotics efforts.
Countries which are "decertified" can be subject to economic penalties.

The administration is bracing for a congressional effort to overturn
the expected certification, and the comments of several senators today
suggested that was a strong possibility. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.,
said flatly he will vote to decertify.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., indicating that the drug problem was more
than Mexico could handle, said the United States might be better off
if it simply purchased all the production of South American drug
chieftains and destroyed it. Such an approach, he said, might be cheaper.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., expressed grave disappointment over
Mexico's record in extraditing drug kingpins to the United States for
trial. She said only in one minor case has Mexico approved requests
for such extraditions.

"They are willing to extradite on murder charges but not on drug
charges" she said.

Randy Beers, the top counter-narcotics official at the State
Department, credited Mexico with a serious effort to come to grips
with drug traffickers.

He said Mexico has carried out an "unprecedented anti-drug campaign
that, to my knowledge, has never been duplicated with any other country."

He added that Mexico earmarks a higher percentage of its national
budget to counter drug efforts than does the United States.