BRAZIL'S NEW DRUG BOSS SEES THREAT FROM COLOMBIA

BRASILIA, July 17 (Reuters)- Brazil needs to rethink its anti-drugs policy
to fight an ``emerging mafia'' of drug-runners linked to Colombia's cocaine
and heroin cartels, the head of Brazil's new anti-drugs office said on
Friday.

Judge Walter Maierovitch, appointed head of the new National Drugs
Secretariat (SND) last month, also said Brazil would begin offering medical
treatment to drug addicts to focus its police efforts on tackling
traffickers.

``Up to now we have been fighting the war on the street corners and in the
shantytowns. We have to fight the dirty money and the organised crime,''
Maierovitch told reporters after a meeting of state anti-narcotics chiefs.

Maierovitch has long investigated the activities of Italian mafia members
in Brazil and has been decorated by the Italian government for his efforts
to fight organised crime.

The Brazilian government announced last month the creation of the SND which
will report directly to the top military aide of President Fernando
Henrique Cardoso, although the armed forces will not play a big role in
drug prevention.

Previously, Brazil's anti-drugs efforts were run by the Justice Ministry.

As much as 8 percent of cocaine produced in Andean nations is believed to
pass through Brazil. Nearly all of the world's cocaine is produced in
Colombia, Bolivia and Peru-- all neighbours of Brazil.

Maierovitch said traffickers had built up a complex network of
transportation routes throughout the country and paid their Brazilian
associates in cocaine which was then sold locally.

Authorities were worried that heroin from Colombia was also beginning to
pass through Brazil, he said.

Amid increasing repression of the drug trade in Asia, Colombia has emerged
as a producer of the poppies which produce opium and as an exporter of
heroin.

Maierovitch said heroine appeared to be passing through Brazil on its way
to Europe, and that the kind of soil found in an area of northeast Brazil
where marijuana production is booming was also ideal for opium poppies.

``Our approach to drugs has to be different now that we recognise the
presence of international criminal cells who are responsible for the
transportation of drugs,'' he said. ``We consider these groups to be
Brazil's emerging mafia.''

The new drugs chief also said he would draw up regulatory legislation to
give teeth to a recently approved money-laundering law as well new rules to
crack down on electronic transactions involving drug cash and to speed up
the seizure of property belonging drug traffickers.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)