DRUG-RUNNERS SHIFTING

MIAMI -- Drug smuggling in Florida and the Caribbean is down, compared
with smuggling in Mexico and the Pacific, the nation's drug czar said
Wednesday.

John P. Walters, director of national drug-control policy, said
increased enforcement efforts in Florida and the Caribbean have caused
the shift of smuggling to the Southwest. He said Florida still has a
major role in the import of drugs.

Walters, who took office in December, visited U.S. Customs at the
Miami Seaport and the Miami-Dade County Juvenile Assessment Center on
Wednesday.

About 1,500 pounds a month of cocaine, heroin and other drugs have
been seized at the Miami Seaport this year, a decline from the 3,830
pounds a month seized last year. U.S. Customs Port Director Thomas
Winkowski said that the Seaport, with its upgraded technology to
screen for drugs, is among the most well-equipped ports in the country.

Walters estimates that around 30 percent of the cocaine shipped from
South America is seized before it enters the country.

"We're making it harder [to smuggle drugs]. We're increasing the cost
of doing business," Walters said.

Florida, with so many miles of beaches and ports of entry, is a hard
place to protect from drug shipments.

"The key is intelligence and gaining knowledge of how these
organizations operate, because if we're going to allow legal commerce
and legal passage of people, we can't stop everyone," Walters said.

Walters' office started an advertising campaign linking drug use with
terrorism. He said that 12 out of the 25 groups that the State
Department lists as terrorist organizations also traffic in drugs.

"Drug use in the U.S. is the single biggest source of terror to the
democratic forces in this hemisphere," Walters said.

Drug money funds terrorism, helping the rebels in Colombia as well as
al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Walters said. He said the United States needs
to support newly elected Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's efforts to
combat rebels by funding anti-terror efforts and training Colombian
soldiers.

President Bush has set a goal of a 10 percent reduction in drug use
over the next two years and a 25 percent reduction in the next five
years. Walters said his office can meet this target by improving
treatment and awareness programs for young people and strengthening
law enforcement.

"While [the reduction goal] is certainly ambitious, it's consistent
with the declines we've seen in the late '80s and early '90s," Walters
said. "We've done it with effective prevention efforts that've focused
on young people. We know that drug use starts with teenagers."

President Bush has committed $1.6 billion to treatment programs over
the next five years, Walters said. He said treatment programs in
schools, work places, families and religious institutions that
pressure people not to abuse drugs can be effective.

An advocate group is pushing a ballot proposition in Florida in 2004
that would allow first-time drug offenders to go into treatment
programs rather than to prison. Walters said he opposes this
proposition, as does Gov. Jeb Bush, because he thinks it will ruin the
state's drug court system. He said Florida is a leader in the use of
drug courts and diversion programs.

"If the premise of these proposals is that Florida or other states
aren't moving in the direction of sorting [serious from nonserious
offenders], that's a false premise," Walters said. "Some of the
advocates say that the jails are full of low-level nonviolent
offenders. That's a lie."