FBI IS SHIFTING AGENTS FROM DRUGS

WASHINGTON - War on terrorism has become agency's top priority, director
says FBI Director Robert Mueller said Tuesday that the war on terrorism
demands that the FBI no longer make drug enforcement a top priority.

As a result, the FBI must pull agents from narcotics task forces.

The comments, which came at the 20th anniversary celebration for the
Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force, followed statements by
Attorney General John Ashcroft confirming that the drug war would be
reorganized but not abandoned.

Ashcroft said law enforcement agencies have created a "most wanted list" of
54 drug organizations that must be toppled.

The list will allow crime fighters to focus their resources, Ashcroft said.

But the FBI will be less involved in the effort because of the shift toward
preventing terrorist attacks and gathering information on terrorist groups
in the United States, Mueller said.

"We ought to defer to the Drug Enforcement Agency on cartel cases," Mueller
said. "We will still participate but with fewer resources. Where there were
10 (FBI agents) on a drug task force in the past, now there will be five."

Mueller listed stopping terrorist attacks, counterintelligence and
undermining strikes at the nation's computer networks as the FBI's top
three priorities.

He listed corporate crime investigations as another major draw on the FBI's
resources.

Mueller has spoken before about the need to reallocate resources from
narcotics enforcement, but Tuesday's comments were the strongest yet.

"(Sept. 11) has required us to look at our resources and make hard
choices," Mueller said. "That is the bottom line for us -- participate (in
drug enforcement) but not in the ways we have in the past."

About 400 agents will be taken from narcotics efforts and placed on
counterterrorism task forces, Mueller said. There are 11,324 agents in the FBI.