SPEZIALE: SEND TROOPS TO FIGHT DRUG WAR

The U.S. government must deploy Special Forces troops to Colombia, seal its
border with Mexico, and cut economic aid to a host of nations in Latin
America to win the war on drugs, Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale said.

In an interview Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" about
his new book on undercover narcotics work, Speziale prescribed a military
operation on a scale of the Panama invasion of 1989 into nations whose
governments are not cooperating in the war on drugs.

"We have to go in strong," he said. "We have to deal with the foreign
governments and make sure they are 100 percent with us in this fight
against narcotics."

The Colombian government would welcome American troops to fight a rebel
movement funded with drug money, he said. "So you'd go in with the U.S.
Special Forces and attack these guys?" asked Bill O'Reilly, host of the
show. "Absolutely. Absolutely," Speziale said.

The sheriff lamented "a lot of bureaucratic stuff that holds us back" from
sending troops abroad and said the U.S. government is not sufficiently
funding international operations against drug cartels.

He said the war on drugs is weakened by changes in drug enforcement policy
every time there is a change in the U.S. administration.

O'Reilly said later in the interview that drug cartels making billions of
dollars can easily bribe underpaid officials in poor Latin American
countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras.

"We're never going to beat these guys, because they just bribe their way in
and out of everything," O'Reilly said. "And they have territories, and we
can't invade Mexico, you know."

"But you know what we can do?" Speziale replied. "We can cut the economic
aid that we supply to these countries."

When O'Reilly said the administration would never cut aid and "won't even
seal the border," Speziale said, "Yes, but if we're really looking to have
this war, that's what we need to do ... because this is a form of terrorism
that's against our country already."

Speziale criticized the "flimsy" extradition treaties that most Latin
American governments signed with the United States and ridiculed the prison
system in Colombia, which allows inmates to build their own jails.

"When a drug lord goes to jail in Colombia, he builds his own jail," he
said. "He brings his girlfriends on Fridays and his wives on Saturdays. He
has his own chefs and cooks. You call that a jail?"

Speziale has been appearing in a series of TV interviews since last week to
promote his book "Without a Badge," which recounts his experience as an
undercover drug agent working to infiltrate the Cali cartel, the powerful
drug trafficking ring based in Colombia.