ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:95062906.LAR
DATE:06/29/95
TITLE:COAST GUARD CHIEF SAYS U.S. WINNING DRUG WAR
TEXT:
TR95062906 (Hearings before House subcommittee) bc (680)
By Bruce Carey
USIA Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- The United States is winning the war against drug
trafficking, but traffickers in illicit drugs are fighting back in
every way they can, says the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Adm. Robert E. Kramek told the House subcommittee on National
Security, International Affairs and Criminal Justice June 28 that
"interdiction programs are effective."
"Are we winning the drug war? My answer to that is `yes,'" he said to
the panel. "We can ... ultimately defeat the threat to our people
posed by these insidious criminal organizations."
Lee Brown, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
appointed Kramek to be U.S. interdiction coordinator for counterdrug
matters in the Western Hemisphere last year. Kramek spelled out for
legislators how the interdiction program has been working.
He said the basic interdiction strategy has two basic components:
Press hard on trafficking until the risk of capture and the increased
losses become unacceptable for the traffickers; and reduce domestic
demand.
The anti-drug interdiction "gives us the best chance for our strategy"
against trafficking, he said. "It disrupts narcotrafficking at all
points along the route, keeping pressure on the drug mafias, producing
valuable intelligence. It increases their risks and business costs.
"In terms of political will, the deterrent presence of interdiction
forces displays strong U.S. government resolve for other nations to
follow."
Kramek said the direct flights into the United States by traffickers
that were common a few years ago "are now rare because of effective
interagency and international efforts. Air traffickers have shifted
from landing and offloading in the United States to conducting
airdrops at transshipment areas," he said.
"The maritime interdiction program is also disrupting the
narcotraffickers by denying them their preferred routes. This creates
a higher risk of interdiction during transport," the admiral said.
"The increased use of aircraft to transport contraband, concealing it
in the legitimate cargo of commercial vessels, the greater use of
concealed compartments and low-profile vessels, and the increased
willingness of traffickers to jettison loads prior to Coast Guard
boardings, are all costly measures which traffickers have adopted in
response to effective interdiction," he added.
Despite these measures, Kramek said, "the narcotrafficking industry is
persevering ... because it has the capability to produce its illicit
product far in excess of the demand, and, at significant cost, absorb
losses from interdiction as the price of doing business."
He painted a daunting picture of the enemy. "These drug mafias are
exceptionally sophisticated and adaptable; they are privy to
exceptional intelligence; they utilize a number of safe havens along
their routes; they can corrupt officials with huge amounts of money or
with threats; they have a decentralized and flexible control
structure; they engage in global cooperative ventures with other
criminal organizations; and they have one of the largest financial
bases in the world," he said.
Kramek's testimony came on the second of two days of hearings by the
panel on efforts to fight the international drug trade.
On June 27, Jean E. Becker, acting assistant secretary of state for
international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, testified that a
series of successes achieved in the past year against Latin America's
narcotics traffickers shows that the U.S. policy of focusing
anti-cocaine efforts on the Andean source countries is working.
Becker said "prospects may be better than ever for fundamental and
lasting progress against the international narcotics trade if the
United States and the key narcotics-producing and transit stay focused
and intensify their efforts."
She also said the operational and diplomatic shift in focus to
Bolivia, Colombia and Peru "does not mean that we are abandoning
efforts in the transit zone."
"To the contrary," she added, "transit zone interdiction and other law
enforcement operations aimed at seizing drugs and evidence, thwarting
money laundering and disrupting transportation and distribution
elements of the Colombia-based and other major syndicates are
important components of our overall strategy."
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