SCHUMER: FUNDS NEEDED TO FIGHT DRUG WAR

Obama Budget to Cut Up to $1.5 Million Used to Stop Trafficking

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer said Wednesday he would fight
"tooth-and-nail" to get up to $1.5 million restored to the federal
budget, funds that help support a network that supplies intelligence
on drug trafficking at the Canadian border to authorities in several
counties, including Albany.

The Obama administration's budget for fiscal 2011 slashes funding for
the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program aimed at curbing
drug sales and related violence in regions throughout the state and
the nation, Schumer said.

Millions of dollars would be lost to New York by a 15 percent cut in
the program, the Democratic senator said in announcing that he would
introduce legislation "to make sure we devote resources to stop drug
trafficking at the northern border, just as we have at the southern border."

"In spite of an increasing amount of drugs being smuggled over the
Canadian border, the administration has yet to put together a
comprehensive strategy to combat this scourge, as they have for the
southern border," Schumer said. The lack of a strategy "to stop drugs
from coming into New York, especially upstate," and the cutting of
funds "could leave New York outgunned in its fight against drug
crimes. Illegal drug trafficking is coming right through the heart of
New York every day."

In the Capital Region, 3,100 adults were arrested on drug charges
last year, the senator said.

Overall, the 2011 budget proposes cutting HIDTA funding by 12 percent
from $239 million to $210 million. In New York, the cuts would range
from $1.2 million to $1.5 million. HIDTA's mission is to assist
federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in dismantling and
disrupting drug trafficking organizations throughout the U.S.

Participating in the conference call with reporters were Albany
County District Attorney David Soares and his counterparts from
Monroe, Onondaga and Franklin counties, four of the eight counties
that rely on HIDTA funds.

Soares said the Northway is referred to by drug dealers as the
"yellow brick road." The county is a crossroads, with "Thruway Exits
23 and 24 connecting to the largest market, Canada to New York City,"
he said. From Albany County, connections can be made from Boston to
Buffalo, he said. "Having that intelligence enables us to pick off
these traffickers here in Albany County," Soares said.

"Narcotics traffickers are not looking at budgets, and they're not
slashing their budgets, they're just increasing their level of
activity," Soares said.

Schumer, who was speaking from Washington, said since 2007 cocaine
seizures at the northern border have risen from less than 1 kilogram
to 18 kilograms, with heroin going from less than 1 kilogram to 28
kilograms. Marijuana seizures have gone from 2,791 kilograms to 3,423
kilograms.