DEA CHIEF SAYS AGENTS INFLATED ARREST FIGURES

WASHINGTON -- Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Asa Hutchinson
confirmed Wednesday that agents in the DEA's office in San Juan, Puerto
Rico, had claimed credit for hundreds of arrests in which they played no
role.

"There is absolutely no excuse for that kind of reporting," Hutchinson said
of the inflated statistics. Citing privacy concerns, he would not spell out
disciplinary action against the agents, saying only that it ranged from a
14-day suspension to a letter of reprimand.

The DEA's top official was responding to a new report from the General
Accounting Office, auditors for Congress. It confirmed a February 2001
report that the DEA's Caribbean division, based in San Juan, had inflated
drug seizure and arrest figures to attest to its success.

The San Juan DEA office's figures included hundreds of routine street busts
for marijuana made by Jamaican police without DEA participation, Jamaican
authorities have said.

The arrests occurred during a monthlong DEA-led regional drug dragnet called
Operation Libertador.