International Herald Tribune Aug 22 1997
contact: iht@iht.com
source: LA Times letters@news.latimes.com

ExGIs Aid Drug Lords, Congressman Says

By Richard A. Serrano
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON A member of Coogress with years of law
enforcment experience along the U.S.Mexico border is raising a new
specter in the fight against drugs: Former American soldiers are being
lured by big money to provide security and other high tech support for
Mexican drug cartels.

The congressman, Representative Silvestre Reyes, a longtime
Border Patrol official in Texas and now a Democrat from El Paso, said
in an interview that former U.S. counterintelligence officers and Green
Berets were being drawn into the service of Mexican drug gangs
because of their electric knowhow for subverting U.S. antidrug
operations.

"At this point, there's not any real way for us to evaluate how
widespread this is," Mr. Reyes said. "But it exists. It's out there."

His comments drew a sharp rebuke from officials at several key
federal agalcies. Both the military and the White House drug policy
office said that although there might be some cases, the problem was
not widespread.

Ensign Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the Pentagon's task
force that coordinates antidrug efforts with hew enforcement,
responded to Mr. Reyes's accusaation with derision. "I guess there's no
reason why the Mexicans wouldn't use WalMart employees either for
their highly trained marketing skills," he said.

But other officials acknowledge that in a world of fast money,
anyoneincluding those in the U.S. veteran communityis prone to
temptation, particularly when they could potentially sell expertise for as
much as a half a million dollars a year.

"Drugs cut through every segment of society " said one federal
drug enforcenent source here. "Every drug dealer is a mercenary in his
own right, so of course they're hiring" veterans.

Mr. Reyes declined to reveal any names or specific cases where
former militaryf officials might now be involved in helping the Mexican
drug franchises. He said U.S. intelligence and other operations could be
jeopardXized were he to do so.

"We have arrested military people involved in drug
smuggling," he said. "They're often individual or anecdotal cases. We
are also getting intelligence that includes former soldiers from
thnoughout the world being hired by the Mexicans."

Mr. Reyes said that along the Texas border with Mexico U.S.
agents had found that "individuals with military training" had been used
to scout illegal cussing areas and jam U.S. electronic sensors.

In addition, he said, U.S. agents have had their police radio
traffic intercepted. In other cases, he said, former soldiers have been
hired for their expertise with. explosives and their understanding of how
to translate secret U.S. police communiques.

Mr. Reyes said he had known of this problem since he was
chief of the Border Patrol in Texas, beginning in the mid1980s. But
now, with Texas soon to see a tripling in the number of federal agents
at the border, he said he thought it important to raise the issue publicly
from his forum in Congress.

As a member of the House National Security Committee, he
suggested that Congress might have to look for new ways to beat the
Mexican drug lords if they continue to use former U.S. military
officials.

"Congress may have to act," he said.

Peter Lupsha, a retired political science professor at the
University of New Mex ico who has written extensively about Mexico's
drug organizins, agrees that illegal traffickers have been hiring former
U.S. military personnel. He noted that the proximity of the Fort Bliss
army post to the border would provide a pool for Mexican drug
operatives to recruit.

He added that he knew of a recent case in which a former U.S.
Air Force officer had sold his electronic skills to the Mexicans and that,
even when the government learned of it, he was not prosecuted.

Don Maple, a deputy director in the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy, said he was stoical that a noticeable
number of former soldiers had slipped over to the other side, but
conceded that it could be true.