HOMELAND SECURITY RENEWS DRUG WAR

MEXICO CITY -- The Department of Homeland Security's fight against terror
will help revitalize the war on drugs, the U.S. drug czar said Thursday
during a brief visit to Mexico.

The new agency's efforts to fortify U.S. borders and fight money laundering
will help stem the flow of narcotics from Latin America to the United
States, John P. Walters said in an interview with foreign journalists.

The wars on terror and drugs go hand-in-hand because "drugs fund violence
and anti-democratic forces," Walters said.

"We need to stop sending hundreds of millions of dollars to brutal, violent
groups in Mexico and Colombia and in our own country," he said.

Walters, who was in Mexico for less than a day, joined Mexican President
Vicente Fox and Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha for a ceremony
of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission.

President Bush has said Americans who buy illegal drugs are helping fund
U.S. enemies worldwide. During the Super Bowl in January, the White House
launched an advertising campaign saying drug money benefits terrorists.

Walter suggested fighting drugs could be an effective way of undermining
terrorism. The war on terror presents a "needle in a haystack problem"
because of the relatively small number of people involved in terrorism, he
said. On the other hand, the drug trade is much larger and easier to
combat, he added.

Even "moderate amount of funding" from drug smuggling gangs "can be very
dangerous" in the hands of terror groups, Walters said.

Homeland security will also improve the war on drugs by trimming
bureaucracy that has helped international smuggling gangs slip through the
cracks, he said. The department is part of Washington's efforts to improve
coordination between federal agencies.

The drug trade has "used the seams between governments and within
government to protect itself," Walters said.

Walters praised Fox's government for overseeing the arrest of some of
Mexico's most powerful drug smugglers. Those arrests have prompted
Colombian cartels to cut off credit to Mexican smugglers, decreasing the
amount of cocaine moving through Mexico, he said.

Fox, who took office two years ago, said his government has made 15,000
drug-related arrests -- including 40 major drug lords.

"Our countries can't become hostages to drugs and organized crime," he said
Thursday.

Following Mexico's lead, Walters said his office was going after at least
five major drug organizations, including the infamous Arellano Felix ring.
He said it was rebuilding after the death of one leader and the arrest of
another.

Walters said his office was "compiling names of people, many of whom don't
know they are under investigation."

"Mexico has shown that these drug kingpins are not invulnerable," he said.