DEA Congressional Testimony
Statement by:
Thomas A. Constantine
Administrator
Drug Enforcement Administration
United States Department of Justice
Before the:
Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, and
The House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
Regarding:
National Drug Control Strategy and Drug Interdiction
Location:
Rayburn House Office Building
Room 2167
Washington, D.C.
Date:
September 12, 1996
Note: This document may not reflect changes made in actual delivery.
Senator Grassley, Chairman Coble: It is an honor for me to appear before this
joint hearing to discuss DEA's role in the national drug control strategy,
and to provide the committee with DEA's concerns about the issue of international
drug trafficking.
The crime situation in the United States is directly related to the actions
of the international narcotics trafficking syndicates operating in Colombia
and Mexico, who employ thousands of surrogates within the United States to
transport and traffic their poison. The heads of these international drug groups
are not household names for most Americans, yet each and every community across
the nation has been touched by the handiwork of either the Cali drug trafficking
organizations or the Mexican Federation. Whether it is New York, or Los Angeles---or
a small town in Iowa or Rocky Mount, North Carolina---crack cocaine, heroin
or methamphetamine have damaged the fabric of big cities and communities across
the nation.
I have often commented that based on over 20 years of conducting organized
crime investigations in New York State, organizations such as the Cali and
Mexican organized crime syndicates make the American mafia look like schoolchildren
by comparison. While the American mafia is most often associated with extortion
and racketeering, these sophisticated international trafficking organizations
from Colombia and Medico are well-versed in violence and murder, in addition
to their lucrative multi-billion dollar drug empires. We conservatively estimate
that at the height of their power, the Cali mafia's annual revenue was $7 billion.
These organizations are a threat to every American. Despite their geographic
distance from the average American citizen, leaders of the Call mafia and Mexican
Federation are daily making business decisions about which product to push,
which community to target and which violent American drug gang to conscript
to distribute their drugs. In truth, the global drug trade is a seamless continuum,
with no clear line of demarcation between international and domestic drug trafficking.
As a nation, we should also be concerned about the effect that these recent
trends bode for the future. By the year 2005, there will be more teenagers
than ever before in our country, and many of them will be reaching their most
crime-prone years. If we do not reverse these increases in drug use very soon,
I fear that our country will be experiencing a tremendous increase in juvenile
crime. Given that half of all homicides are drug-related, and that over one-third
of all violence is attributed to drugs, the need for action is urgent.
International Traffickers in our own Backyard
A recent multi-agency case that was headed by the DEA and the FBI, along with
the Criminal Division including 42 state and local police departments, called
Operation Zorro II clearly illustrated the direct relationship of the international
drug cartels in our violent domestic crime problem. In May of this year, the
8-month investigation was culminated with 156 arrests, the seizure of almost
5,600 kilograms of cocaine and over $17 million. Zorro II was the first long-term
investigation undertaken as part of the Southwest Border Initiative, a complex
law enforcement response to the problems of drug trafficking along the US-Mexican
border. DEA, working with the FBI, the US Attorneys' offices, and other state,
local and federal agencies, coordinated and shared information gleaned from
over 90 court-authorized wiretaps.
The information painted a clear picture of how Mexican cocaine transporters
worked closely with Colombian cocaine traffickers and violent drug gangs within
the U.S. to provide their product to major cities and small communities across
the nation.
The drug cartels have a very long reach and are capable of insinuating their
drugs and violence into every city and town in the United States. Despite the
fact that they are headquartered in Colombia, drug leaders have ordered executions
in our cities and towns. The assassination of Manuel de Dios, a prominent journalist
in New York was ordered by Cali chieftain Jose Santa-Cruz Londono in March
of 1992. John Mena, the architect of the de Dios murder, pled guilty and admitted
being responsible for three additional contract killings on behalf of the Cali
cartel. Last summer, good police work resulted in the apprehension of a Colombian
hit team in Memphis, Tennessee. This team was sent to the United States to
collect on a drug debt, with orders to kill if the debt was not repaid. These
incidents clearly illustrate the long reach of these violent trafficking groups.
The powerful Organized Crime Syndicates in Colombia and Mexico
Eighty percent of the
world's cocaine is controlled by Colombian organized crime. At the current
time, all of the
major players in the Cali syndicate
are either in jail or deceased. Just last week, the last remaining Cali drug
lord, Helmer "Pacho" Herrera, surrendered to Colombian Police after
being on the run for over a year. These mafia leaders were almost virtually
''untouchable'' for over a decade as they amassed a fortune and ran the largest
drug organization in history. During 1995, the Colombian National Police, working
with the Drug Enforcement Administration, hunted down the leaders of the Cali
cartel and made the historic arrests. The CNP, under the leadership of General
Serrano, took enormous risks and accomplished what many people thought was
impossible.
During the 1980s the Colombian drug lords worked closely with organized Mexican
groups that agreed to transport cocaine into the United States after it was
delivered to Mexico from Colombia. Currently, the greatest proportion of cocaine
available in the U.S. is still entering the United States through Mexico. Using
their skills as seasoned drug traffickers with a long tradition of polydrug
smuggling, crime lords from Mexico soon established their own trafficking routes
and contacts, and evolved from mere transporters of cocaine to major cocaine
traffickers in their own right. Colombian organizations had paid Mexican transporters
cash for their services, but during the last several years the Mexican operators
began demanding and receiving cocaine--in many cases up to half of the shipment--as
payment for their services. These Mexican traffickers are violent and powerful,
and with the arrest of the Cali drug lords, members of the Mexican Federation
are now forces with whom to be reckoned.
Mexican organized crime syndicates share a loose consortium of major trafficking
organizations with well-established organized crime credentials that compose
the Mexican Federation. Four organizations comprise the Mexican crime groups:
the Tijuana organization; the Sonora cartel; the Juarez cartel; and the Gulf
group.
The Tijuana organization is headed by the Arellano Felix
brothers, Benjamin, Francisco and Ramon, and is headquartered in Tijuana, Baja
California Norte. This group controls smuggling across the border to California
and is among the most violent of the Mexican organizations and has been connected
by Mexican officials to the violent death of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas-Ocampo
who was killed in the cross fire of rivals drug gangs at the Guadalajara Airport
in 1993. During 1994, this group was engaged in a turf battle over methamphetamine
territory in San Diego. Twenty-six homicides were committed during one summer
as rival groups battled over trafficking regions. Benjamin Arellano Felix was
indicted on May 2, 1989 in San Diego on charges of operating a continuing criminal
enterprise which involved the importation and distribution of cocaine. Arellano
Felix is frequently seen in Mexico and has never been arrested on these charges.
Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, his brother, was indicted in San Diego in
1980 for possession and conspiracy to possess cocaine. He too, has not been
arrested.
The Sonora cartel is headed by Miguel Caro Quintero, and
operates out of Hermosillo, Agua Prieta, Guadalajara and Culican, as well as
the Mexican states of San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa and Sonora. Rafael, Miguel's
brother, is in jail for his role in the killing of DEA Special Agent Enrique
Camerena in 1985. The Sonora cartel has direct links to the Colombian cartel
and operates routes into California, Arizona, Texas and Nevada. Miguel Caro
Quintero was indicted in Arizona for shipping two tons of cocaine fiom Mexico
to Arizona, and he has been indicted twice in Colorado. He continues to be
a fugitive, but claims publicly to travel freely in various areas of Mexico.
The Juarez cartel is headed by Amado Carillo Fuentes, the
most powerful figure in the Mexican drug trade. His organization is linked
to the Rodriquez Orejuela organization in Cali, and has family ties to the
Ochoa brothers in Medellin, Colombia. For many years, this organization ran
transportation services for the Cali cartel, and used aircraft including 727's
to fly cocaine from Colombia to Mexico. He also used to move drugs from regional
bases in Guadalajara, Hermosillo and Torreon. Carillo Fuentes has been indicted
in Dallas and Miami, and has also been a fugitive for eight years.
The Gulf group was headed by Juan Garcia Abrego, and is based
in Matamoros, Tamaulipas State. It distributes cocaine into the United States
as far north as Michigan, New Jersey and New York. DEA has reports that this
organization smuggled in excess of 30 tons of cocaine into the United States.
Humberto Garcia Abrego, Juan's brother, was arrested in October 1994 by Mexican
authorities. Juan Garcia Abrego, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted, was arrested
on January 14, 1996. After his arrest. Mexican officials worked quickly to
expel Abrego to the United States to face charges of conspiracy to import cocaine
and the management of a continuing criminal enterprise; however, his organization
continues to operate in spite of Abrego's arrest.
Within the last year, several top law enforcement officials from Tijuana have
been assassinated. These killings are indicative of the impunity with which
the Mexican crime syndicates feel they can operate, and are consistent with
the intimidation and narco- terrorist methods of the Cali and Medellin cartels.
The capture of these powerful drug traffickers, and the dismantling of their
organizations operating on both sides of the border, are top priorities of
the Drug Enforcement Administration.
To combat this growing threat fiom the Mexican Federation traffickers, the
DEA and FBI, working with the Department of Justice Criminal Division and U.S.
Attorneys, the U.S. Customs Service, and in support of efforts by the Government
of Mexico in their country, formulated the Southwest Border Initiative. This
strategy was designed to bring the combined resources of the Department of
Justice to bear in a multi-agency enforcement effort simultaneously targeting
the Mexican drug trafficking organizations on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico
border by creating and sustaining a greatly enhanced operation that involves
intelligence and enforcement operations in Mexico that are directly linked
to those in the U.S. The Southwest Border Initiative will direct and support
major investigations and operations that target the highest levels of the major
drug trafficking organizations operating along the Southwest border.Recent
Drug Trafficking Trends
Several recent developments in drug trafficking are troubling. Cocaine, heroin,
marijuana and methamphetamine are plentiful and cheap. Today, I would like
to discuss two particular aspects of the international drug trade which are
especially troubling: the emergence of methamphetamine as a critical issue
in many areas of the nation; and the re-emergence of cheaper, purer heroin---and
the recent Colombian involvement in the heroin trade.
Methamphetamine is cheap, easy to manufacture and widely available across
the United States. Within the last several years, deaths from methamphetamine
have increased 174 percent. Cities with the most acute methamphetamine problems
are Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. At one point, most of
the methamphetamine in the United States was controlled by outlaw motorcycle
gangs, and the manufacturing and use of meth was limited primarily to the West
Coast.
All that has changed. Methamphetamine is now available in the Midwest and
the Southeast in addition to California and the southwestern states. Law enforcement
officials throughout Iowa report a dramatic increase in the availability and
trafficking of methamphetamine; between 1991 and 1993, meth seizures by the
Department of Public Safety increased by 67 percent. According to drug experts
in Iowa, meth is now the number one drug of choice, and is the primary factor
in domestic abuse cases. The methamphetamine trafficked and abused in Iowa
comes mainly from California, Arizona and Mexico. There is also meth production
in Iowa; in FY 1996 alone, 13 meth labs were seized. In other Midwest states,
such as Missouri, Kansas anti Nebraska, methamphetamine production, trafficking,
and use have overtaxed law enforcement and social service networks.
The majority of the methamphetamine which is available in the United States
is produced by traffickers from Mexico who control every aspect of the methamphetamine
business. Meth seizures along the U.S.-Mexican border rose from 6.5 kilograms
in 1992 to 665 kilograms in 1995. In the first six months of 1996, 516 kilograms
of methamphetamine have been seized along the border.
In April, the Department of Justice transmitted to Congress the Methamphetamine
Control Act of 1996. DEA and the Department have been working with Congress
to finalize legislation to limit the amount of pseudoephedrine available to
drug traffickers for the manufacture of methamphetamine. We are grateful for
the support we have received from Senators Grassley, Hatch, Biden and Feinstein,
who have demonstrated their commitment to reducing methamphetamine production.
The other troubling development has been the ascendancy of Colombian traffickers
in the heroin trade. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of the heroin seized in the United
States originates in South America. This percentage is up from 32% just a year
ago and from 15% in 1993.
Recently, our nation has
witnessed a renewed interest in heroin and an increase in heroin use by young
people.
The list of heroin deaths and emergency room
mentions continues to grow and musicians, actors and models have become the
latest victims of "heroin chic."
The DEA's Domestic Monitor Program, which tracks price purity and availability
through analysis of street level purchases of drugs, shows that several cities
in the Northeast--- Boston, Philadelphia, Newark, and New York---have experienced
increased availability of Colombian heroin. The purity of Philadelphia's heroin
was over 70 percent compared to the 7-10 percent purity levels of just a decade
ago. Another troubling development is the predominance of Colombian heroin
in Miami, traditionally a cocaine market.
Independent Colombian traffickers have moved into the heroin trade by strategically
positioning themselves as central players. At their present rate of rapid growth,
they will dominate the heroin market by the year 2000. By marketing cheap high-purity
heroin, Colombian traffickers are attempting to corner the heroin market by
appealing to young people as well as the existing addict population who can
snort or smoke the heroin. Once acclimated to the drug, users seek a higher
high and turn to heroin injection. With heroin purity as high 94 percent in
some places, and with the new crop of heroin users, some as young as 11th and
12th grade, we are gravely concerned about the prospects for heroin control
in the coming years.
Mobile Enforcement Teams
Shortly after arriving at DEA, I directed that the agency develop a new program
to address drug-related violence through cooperative enforcement efforts with
state and local law enforcement agencies. The objective has been to dismantle
drug organizations by securing the conviction and incarceration of drug traffickers
who have been terrorizing and victimizing the citizens in our nation's urban
streets and rural neighborhoods throughout the United States. Nineteen of our
field divisions established Mobile Enforcement Teams which have as their mission
the reduction of the high rate of drug- related violence in communities that
urgently need and are requesting our assistance. MET deployments leave proven
the benefits of federal law enforcement assistance to state and local law enforcement
organizations besieged by drug violence.
I will cite the results in just one investigation. Texas City, Texas, a small
town 35 miles south of Houston, was plagued by extremely violent street gangs
that were distributing crack cocaine. In 1994, the police department recorded
117 drive-by shootings and 26 gang- related juvenile homicides. The violence
and drug dealing were out-of-hand and beyond the capabilities of local law
enforcement. The county sheriff requested assistance fiom DEA, and the Mobile
Enforcement Team was deployed. Our joint efforts with the local authorities
led to 96 arrests that effectively dismantled two street gangs who were distributing
hundreds of pounds of cocaine to juveniles and young adults throughout several
Texas counties and three states.
To date MET teams have been deployed to 75 cities at the request of local
law enforcement authorities. Those operations have resulted in the arrest of
over 2,000 violent drug traffickers, most of whom are members of street gangs
bent on criminal activity.
DEA 1997 Budget
I would like to thank both the members of the House and Senate for their generous
support for DEA's 1997 budget request. Both the House and Senate Appropriations
Committees have provided for significant increases in DEA's 1997 budget request,
thereby working to affirm the agency's viability as the leader in the drug
enforcement community as this nation moves into the 21st century. Through the
ongoing efforts of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, DEA will
continue to operate at peak levels of performance, thereby working to ensure
this nation is able to turn the corner in the persistent battle against drug
trafficking, use, and abuse.
Conclusion
As I mentioned initially, the crime situation that we face in the United States
is directly related to the criminal actions of the drug trafficking syndicates
operating in Colombia and Mexico. These organizations are a threat to every
American in every city and state in the nation, from major metropolitan centers
to small-town America. We must continue to focus the same energy on the organized
drug traffickers in Mexico that we have in the past focused on the Colombian
cartels, and we must continue to train and work with our foreign counterparts,
particularly in the source and transit countries to pursue aggressive investigations
that will lead to the incarceration and conviction of these international criminals.
Thanks to your support, I believe that we in the DEA are poised to expand our
efforts, both domestically and abroad; and I assure you that we are committed
to dismantling these large drug trafficking organizations throughout the world.
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