ITALY'S DRUG FIGHTER

NPR's Tom Gjelten profiles Pino Arlacchi, who took charge o the United
Nations Drug Control Program in September and says he intends to stop
worldwide production of illegal cocaine and opium within 10 years. He wants
to begin in Afghanistan, where the Taliban relies on cultivation of coca
plants and poppies for much of its revenue. Arlacchi's goal is considered
overly ambitious, but he says it can be attained. He earned his
crimefighting reputation as director of a special antiMafia task force in
Italy.

BOB EDWARDS, HOST: One of Italy's top antiMafia fighters is making a new
name for himself in the battle against international drug trafficking.

Pino Arlacchi previously directed a special police unit in Italy that
focused on the Mafia. In September, he took charge of the United Nations
Drug Control Program based in Vienna. Within weeks, Arlacchi announced his
intention to end coca and opium production around the world within 10
years. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports on Arlacchi's bold start and the
skepticism he's encountering.

TOM GJELTEN, NPR REPORTER: The United Nations General Assembly is meeting
in special session next June to discuss drug trafficking around the world.
Pino Arlacchi says he wants to make the session, in his words, "a milestone
event."

PINO ARLACCHI, HEAD OF UNITED NATIONS DRUG CONTROL PROGRAM: We want to
present a set of proposals for each of the points of the agenda. And one
of these proposals is the global plan for the elimination of the opium and
the coca cultivation worldwide.

GJELTEN: Eliminating opium and coca would end the production of heroin and
cocaine. And Pino Arlacchi thinks he can do it in 10 years at a cost of
just $25 million a year.

Arlacchi's boldness has impressed UN member governments, the United States
in particular. Jonathan Winer, deputy assistant secretary of state for
international narcotics, says some people wonder whether Arlacchi is aiming
too high.

JONATHAN WINER, U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INTERNATIONAL
NARCOTICS: It's like a batter who steps up to the plate ready to hit one
out of the park. Now, if you decide you want to try and hit the home run
first time out, if you hit the home run, you're gonna get everybody
applauding and thrilled and excited and you're gonna be a superstar. Of
course, you run a larger risk that you may strike out and get nothing.

GJELTEN: Arlacchi has encountered skepticism before. As a government
investigator 15 years ago with just a few Italian colleagues, Arlacchi took
on the Sicilian Mafia. By the time they'd finished, the team had exposed a
collusion that had long existed between the Mafia and major political
parties in Italy.

Arlacchi's belief in the power to do good might strike some as naive were
it not for his own record.

ARLACCHI: When I started to attack, with very few people, the Sicilian
Mafia, nobody thought that we could be successful. But we did. Because,
after all, we have on our side the law, the values, that are superior to
that of our enemies.

GJELTEN: Arlacchi's strategy in taking on the Mafia was to find the weak
points of the organization and focus law enforcement efforts there. He
takes the same approach in fighting drug trafficking, identifying where the
trade is most vulnerable. In Arlacchi's judgment, it is in the growing of
opium poppies and coca plants, the first step in heroin and cocaine
production.

ARLACCHI: We need the very small amount of resources, because when you go
to the point of the production of narcotics you will find very small figures.

GJELTEN: Of the billions of dollars earned every year in the heroin and
cocaine trade, Arlacchi says, less than 1 percent goes to the farmers who
grow coca and opium poppies. So, relatively modest financial incentives
could lure farmers out of the narcotics business.

Arlacchi wants to focus first on Afghanistan, where half of the world's
opium is produced. Last month he traveled there to meet with leaders of
the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist movement that controls most of the
country. After just three hours of negotiating, Arlacchi had a deal.

ARLACCHI: The agreement is very simple. They should destroy all the poppy
cultivation in the province of Kandahar. And we will in exchange of that
provide opportunities, jobs, for the peasants of that province.

GJELTEN: Some diplomats question Arlacchi's willingness to take the Taliban
leaders at their word. The movement financed its guerrilla uprising partly
with profits earned in the drug trade, according to Western governments.
Once in power, they brutally repressed their opposition and stripped Afghan
women of basic civil rights.

Jonathan Winer of the State Department wonders whether the Taliban can be
trusted now to help end drug trafficking in Afghanistan.

WINER: There have been areas of Taliban control where there has been a
substantial amount of crop grown. So, the Taliban is responsible for that.
It may not be their crop, but they have facilitated it or have failed to
discourage it in the past.

GJELTEN: The United States has already pledged in principle to support Pino
Arlacchi's campaign to eradicate opium and coca cultivation. But Jonathan
Winer says the State Department has not yet endorsed the idea of UN money
being distributed in Afghanistan.

WINER: In the case of the Taliban there are additional problems associated
with their treatment of women and human rights abuses in the past. And we
have to make sure that we have assurances that we can rely on before we're
going to be in a position to do very much.

GJELTEN: Pino Arlacchi is the first to admit that the Taliban may prove to
be unreliable allies. But he notes it's just a oneyear experiment. "If
it doesn't work," he says, "we won't have lost anything. We'll just have
spent money for the benefit of the people of Afghanistan."

Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.

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