Source:Orange County RegisterNATION,news,page 9
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Headline:Drug violence increasing along the U.S. border

LAW ENFORCEMENT:Drug czar says U.S. and Mexico have an opportunity to put a
dent in the trade because of recent disruptions in cartels.

By EDUARDO MONTES The Associated Press

U.S. drug official said Sunday.

Just as Mexican officers and civilians have been slain, U.S. authorities
and citizens are being cut down and threatened by drug thugs, President
Clinton's drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, told The Associated Press in an
interview in El Paso.

"This is happening right now all up and down the border. U.S.
lawenforcement officers murdered, private citizens murdered, abductions,
corruption of mayors, sheriffs, local law enforcement, forced purchases of
U.S. property, intimidation of witnesses. It is a giant, growing threat,"
McCaffrey said.

"I might add it's a border region problem. So we've got murderers who live
in the United States and attack Mexican lawenforcement officers in Mexico,
and vice versa. I think it's important for U.S. authorities and the U.S.
people to get that point. It's really not their (Mexico's) problem and our
vulnerability. It's a tremendous threat on both sides of the border."

Despite that, McCaffrey said U.S. ad Mexican authorities now have a
tremendous opportunity to press their was against drug traffickers because
of recent disruptions caused by the deaths and arrests of top cartel leaders.

Amado Carrillo Fuentes, reputed leader of the Juarez cartel and reportedly
Mexico's most powerful druglord, died July 4 during surgery in Mexico. This
followed less than a year after the conviction in a U.S. court of Juan
Garcia Abrego,onetime leader of the Matamorosbased Gulf cartel.

In their absence, authorities have seen an increase in drugrelated
violence, At least 15 people have been killed in Carrillo's but drug
experts say that is the likeliest scenario.

"Now they're in disarray," McCaffrey said. "They're murdering one another
and bystanders and this is their period of great vulnerability, and we need
to pile on them and wreck them as best we can. And that is what Mexican and
U.S. authorities are determined to do."

McCffrey is now embarking on a tour of the entire 2,000mile U.S. Mexican
border to gauge the government's response to the drug threat.

McCaffrey and other federal officials made their first stop Sunday in El
Paso Intelligence Center, which tracks drug trafficking across the border.

The group will tour other areas of El Paso and southern New Mexico and
cross the Rio Grande into Juarez on Monday. McCaffrey will shaping the
nation's drug policies, said one of his priorities is devising ways to
coordinate international lawenforcement efforts.

By year's end, "We owe the two presidents (Clinton and Mexico's Ernesto
Zedillo) a common strategy to confront this common threat," he said.

McCaffrey said one consensus among highranking officials is that efforts
to secure the border will focus on building up federal lawenforcement
agencies and not turning to increasing militarization.

The military's role in drug interdiction has come under intense scrutiny
and criticism since a Marine on an antidrug mission killed a West Texas
teenager in the remote community of Redford on May 20.

"The answer is not 10,000 military personnel where you take New Jersey
National Guard tank battalions and...put them on the frontier. That is not
the way to do it," McCaffrey said. "We don't want to militarize the border,
and we darn sure don't want to use the U.S. armed forces in domestic law
enforcementperiod. It's not a good idea."