U.S. DRUG CZAR WANTS BORDER WITH MEXICO TIGHTENED UP

McCaffrey says federal agencies don't work together

WASHINGTON -- Barry McCaffrey, the nation's director of drug policy,
recalled his astonishment during his first tour of U.S.-Mexico border
crossings two years ago.

"You've got 800 people working at these border crossings," he said, "And
nobody's in charge."

At the checkpoints, McCaffrey saw Immigration and Naturalization Service
agents patrolling some lanes, while U.S. Customs officials patrolled
others. But the INS employees didn't share their findings with their
customs counterparts, he said.

McCaffrey also discovered that each agency had to follow separate union
rules controlling how its inspectors would search vehicles. Officials at
one agency were actually forbidden to open the trunks of cars -- a policy
well known among drug dealers.

Looking at the cars down the line, McCaffrey could "see drug dealers with
binoculars watching the various lanes . . . to see where to drive their
vehicles to avoid getting caught," he said.

According to McCaffrey, drugs will continue to flow unimpeded across the
border until America's federal and state agencies charged with fighting
narcotics begin to work together. He will stress that point during a
two-day visit to San Antonio starting Monday.

"Nothing in life works without coordination," said the former four-star
general, who directed policy and strategic planning for the Joint Chiefs of
Staff before becoming the nation's drug czar in 1996.

Coordination is a crucial component of a plan McCaffrey announced last
Wednesday that would shore up federal anti-drug efforts along the
2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

Under the plan, huge portable X-ray machines capable of quickly scanning
entire truck cargoes would be installed at each of the 39 crossings along
the Southwest border by 2003. Currently, only six of the $3.5 million
X-rays machines are in place. In addition, the plan calls for added fences,
sensors, video cameras and lighting along the border.

The plan also calls for boosting the number of border agents from 12,000 to
22,000.

But the part of the plan that could prove most difficult to implement may
be its call for more efficient use of drug-fighting personnel. Currently
more than 50 federal and state agencies are involved in fighting narcotics.
But the efforts of these agencies are hampered by poor communication and
turf wars.

McCaffrey's plan would create a regional drug czar, most likely based in El
Paso, to coordinate law enforcement efforts of the 22 agencies most active
in the area's anti-narcotics war. The plan also calls for coordinators at
each of the 39 points of entry along the border, which stretches from Texas
to California.

McCaffrey said he expects the main fight over his Southwest initiative to
come from agency heads reluctant to give up any control of their employees.
The problem, he said, "will be in Washington among the departments and in
Congress because there are separate congressional committees that support
customs, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), etc."

DEA and INS officials declined to comment on McCaffrey's proposal,
referring questions to their parent agency, the Department of Justice.

Justice Department spokesman Gregory King said officials there were
"studying" the initiative.

Although his plan has received a cool reception in Washington, McCaffrey
said drug-fighting authorities and community leaders in the Southwest have
supported it. "I've been up and down that border . . . and these people are
prepared to move forward."

The need for a tighter border is clear. More than 60 percent of the
estimated 300 tons of cocaine and more than half of the methamphetamines
and marijuana that enter the country each year are believed to pass through
the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. Customs Service estimates that current
interdiction efforts stop 10 percent to 20 percent of that drug flow. Local
authorities put the number even lower.

1998 San Francisco Examiner

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski