DEA SHIFTS 40 SPECIAL AGENTS TO SOUTHWESTERN BORDER DUTY

WASHINGTON -- The Drug Enforcement Administration is boosting the number of
special agents on the southwestern border by 40, part of an effort to
replace Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel being shifted from drug
investigations to antiterrorism duty.

Drug Enforcement Administrator Asa Hutchinson said the agency also is
working on a reorganization plan aimed at transferring more personnel out
of their Washington headquarters to field offices.

Amid criticism of the government's antiterrorism efforts leading up to the
Sept. 11 attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller in May unveiled a plan for
400 FBI agents to be shifted to counterterrorism duties from working drug
cases around the country. The announcement sparked discussion among some in
Congress and local law-enforcement communities who wondered how those
vacancies would be filled.

"We're going through a very vigorous process of reviewing our allocation of
manpower and how that lines up with where the FBI is pulling out agents
from drug enforcement and also where the threats are," said Mr. Hutchinson.

The first step is to move 40 agents from various offices, including
headquarters, to the southwest border, which includes the DEA's offices in
El Paso, Texas, Houston, Phoenix and San Diego, along with a number of
satellite offices in the area. "The southwest border is the biggest
threat," said Mr. Hutchinson. The reassignments and transfer of positions
will increase the number of agents in the area by 6%, he said.

In addition, he is doing an assessment to "meet the president's goal of a
10% reduction of headquarters staff." Those staff positions will likely be
transferred to field offices to meet the FBI's proposed cuts in drug
investigators.

"It would be agents but also the technical people and the intelligence
analysts," Mr. Hutchinson said. "We're looking at all of that and trying to
put more people out in the field."

It is unlikely that it will be a "one-to-one" trade-off in terms of DEA
agents added to FBI agents lost, he said. "We're trying to honestly
evaluate it and not just say they're pulling out 400 agents so we need 400
agents."

According to DEA figures, there are 1,776 positions authorized for
headquarters, including 191 special agents. The other employees who could
be shifted include chemists, intelligence analysts, program analysts,
clerical personnel and diversion investigators who regulate industries like
pharmaceuticals.