CLINTON ORDERS 5YEAR PROGRAM TO STOP DRUG SMUGGLING FROM MEXICO

MIAMI (AP) Claiming a banner year in cocaine seizures, President Clinton
ordered planning Thursday for an ambitious strategy to eliminate drug
smuggling from Mexico within five years.

Despite the huge crossborder travel flow, ``We think that's achievable,''
said Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy.

One tool that will help, he said, is an Xray machine designed to peer
through Russian missile shipping containers for armscontrol inspections.
Tested in California, the machines have discovered cocaine hidden inside
lead batteries, suspended by wires in wet concrete and welded into truck
walls.

``They work. They absolutely work,'' McCaffrey said. Other tools will be
advanced sensor technology, border fencing and a reinforced Border Patrol,
he said.

Clinton is to announce the plan in his late January State of the Union
address.

On a hot, hazy Thursday morning, Clinton and McCaffrey boarded the Coast
Guard cutter Chandeleur for a halfhour ride up a narrow channel to the
Miami Coast Guard station. The Chandeleur is used in a Caribbean crackdown
on smugglers who use Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as transit points.

Aided by other law enforcement agencies, the Coast Guard seized a record
103,617 pounds of cocaine in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, more than
triple the previous year's total.

``You are waging a battle for America's future and America's children,''
Clinton told Coast Guard personnel. ``The ammo is live, the dangers are
real, and I want America to know you are making a big difference.''

The antidrug event was built around a busy schedule of presidential fund
raising three events in one day expected to raise $1.25 million. It was
Clinton's final trip in a sixweek travel marathon to raise millions of
dollars for the debtridden Democratic Party.

Republicans traditionally raise more money than Democrats, the president
said at a luncheon for Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay's gubernatorial campaign.
``But the important thing is not whether they have more. It's whether we
have enough,'' Clinton said. ``If our side has enough to get our message
out, we'll be all right.''

Amid official events and fund raising, Clinton found time for an afternoon
of golf.

Earlier, Clinton met with McCaffrey to discuss the administration's
campaign against drugs.

Clinton directed McCaffrey to have ready in time for his State of the Union
message ``a concept'' to eliminate drug smuggling on the country's
Southwestern border. The president has discussed the initiative with House
Speaker Newt Gingrich.

``We're going to try and stop drug smuggling into the United States across
the MexicanU.S. border in the next five years substantially stop it
while still allowing our secondbiggest trading partner to continue
economic cooperation,'' McCaffrey said.

The obstacles are staggering. Each year, 260 million people cross the
border. Eightytwo million cars, 3.5 million trucks and 340,000 rail cars
go from one country to the other.

``My guess is, give us five years of hard work, get technology in the hands
of the Customs Service, do fencing and sensor technology and an adequate
Border Patrol, and we can make it so difficult to smuggle these incredibly
lethal cargoes across the border that they'll go to sea,'' McCaffrey said.

And, he said, ``We're going to follow them to sea.''

McCaffrey said he is working with the CIA and Justice Department to
determine how best to supply Customs officials with better intelligence and
intercept information.