Drug Czar Says Traffic Moving West

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) 97 Drug traffic through Puerto Rico has
decreased, partly because smugglers are shifting routes to the poorer
nations just west, U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey said Tuesday.

``It's like squeezing a balloon,'' McCaffrey said during a visit to the
Caribbean island, which is a U.S. commonwealth. ``You put pressure on one
area and it pops up in another.''

That new area, he said, is the island of Hispaniola, only 100 miles away,
where the impoverished governments of the Dominican Republic and Haiti have
proven unable to stem near-nightly attempts by smugglers to land speedboats
carrying cocaine.

McCaffrey, who directs the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
estimated about 7 tons of cocaine still flow into Puerto Rico monthly, most
en route to the United States. He said that's down from as much as 14 tons
two years ago.

``But this is not the time to be declaring victory,'' McCaffrey said. ``The
drug-smuggling effort in Haiti and the Dominican Republic is now enormous
and is still attempting to get through Puerto Rico and into the United
States.''

The shipments move directly to Florida, Texas and other southeastern
states, he said.

Drug agents are relying on new and costly hardware to combat the traffic.

Puerto Rican police are buying a $16 million X-ray system for shipping
containers and the U.S. Navy will install a controversial radar system 97
opposed by Puerto Rican environmentalists 97 capable of tracking airplanes
as they leave South American rain forests. The Coast guard also wants to
add more patrol boats at a cost of over $30 million.

Puerto Rico is a key shipping point for smugglers because flights and ships
to the mainland United States do not have to pass through U.S. Customs, and
there are hundreds of direct flights to U.S. cities every week.

Since many smugglers are paid in cocaine that they can resell, the trade
has also created a massive drug addiction problem in Puerto Rico. McCaffrey
said some estimates put the number of drug users at 65,000, or one in 58
residents.

On Tuesday, McCaffrey met with Gov. Pedro Rossello and the Alliance for a
Drug-Free Puerto Rico, a coalition of advertising companies that create
public-service announcements for Puerto Rican television.

He urged a greater focus on children between the ages of 9 and 19, saying
they must be discouraged from experimenting with ``gateway drugs'' like
marijuana and alcohol.

McCaffrey was to visit the Dominican Republic on Wednesday. He said he
wanted to ``see in which areas we might be able to help.''

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski