ASHCROFT DESCRIBES 'DRUGS-TERRORISM NEXUS'

WASHINGTON -- The United States has determined that about one-third of
foreign terrorist organizations traffic in narcotics on a large scale,
providing authorities "shocking" insight into how two of the nation's most
serious threats are connected, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said
Tuesday.

"Law enforcement has been aware for some time of significant linkages
between terrorism and drug trafficking. But we have not had the tools to
quantify the drugs-terrorism nexus until now," Ashcroft said in a speech
before the annual conference of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement
Task Force.

Earlier this year, Ashcroft said, he asked federal law enforcement agencies
to draw up such a list, quantifying all the major trafficking groups
responsible for the U.S. drug supply.

"Following extraordinary collaboration and information-sharing between
agencies, this list has been developed, and what it reveals is shocking,"
Ashcroft said. "Nearly one-third of the organizations on the State
Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations appear also on our
list of targeted U.S. drug suppliers."

Cross-matching the lists is providing substantial leads in the ongoing
global war on terrorism, Ashcroft said, as well as helping combat the
growing worldwide traffic in cocaine, heroin and other drugs.

Ashcroft's remarks came as authorities announced the arrest of more than
2,120 fugitives along the Southwest border in recent months.

Ashcroft did not elaborate on which terrorist groups are involved in drug
trafficking.

Justice Department officials also would not, except to say that al- Qaida
was one of them.