Source: Houston Chronicle, page 1
(http://www.chron.com/cgibin/auth/story/content/chronicle/
metropolitan/97/08/25/drugczar.html)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com

'Skyrocketing' narcotics violence imperils U.S. cities, official
says

EL PASO (AP) American communities are as vulnerable to
"skyrocketing" drug violence as Mexican cities now engulfed by
overt bloodshed that may be part of an underworld war, the top
U.S. drug official said Sunday.

Just as Mexican officers and civilians have been murdered, U.S.
authorities and citizens are being cut down and threatened by
drug thugs, President Clinton's drug czar, Barry McCaffrey said
in El Paso.

"This is happening right now all up and down the border. U.S. law
enforcement 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 law enforcement
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. and Mexican authorities now
have a tremendous opportunity to press their war 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 drug lord, died July 4 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 drug
related violence. At least 15 people have been killed in
Carrillo's former base, Ciudad Juarez, since his death.

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