Americans face growing security threats both at home and abroad from international terrorist networks and their allies in the illegal drug trade and international criminal enterprises. Terrorism, drug trafficking, and international crime all exploit weaknesses in international law enforcement institutions in ways that undermine our interests and those of close friends, neighbors, and allies.
Program Overview
Program Objectives
Illegal drugs impose a staggering toll on our society, killing more than 19,000 Americans annually and costing more than $160 billion in terms of law enforcement, drug-related health care, and lost productivity. This is in addition to the devastating impact on families and communities and the generally corrosive effect on public institutions. In President Bush’s words, “Illegal drug use threatens everything that is good about our country.” Drug trafficking threatens the rule of law, undermines political and economic stability, and destroys lives in all the major drug producing and transit countries. No country is immune.
Transnational organized crime groups, although they attract less media attention, rival the threat posed by narcotics traffickers. Of the estimated $750 billion – $1 trillion laundered globally each year, about half is from non-drug crime. Trafficking in persons, migrant smuggling, money laundering, public corruption, credit card fraud, cyber crime, IPR theft, vehicle theft, environmental crimes, and trafficking in illegal firearms cost U.S. taxpayers and businesses billions of dollars each year. International crime groups threaten free market economies in both developing and developed states and undermine rule of law and stability. In microstates in the Caribbean and Pacific areas and in other economically vulnerable states such as Paraguay, organized crime often represents the greatest economic opportunities for entrepreneurs.
The September 11 attacks and their aftermath highlight the close connections and overlap among terrorists, drug traffickers, and organized crime groups. The nexus is far-reaching. In many instances, such as Colombia, the groups are the same. Drug traffickers benefit from terrorists’ military skills, weapons supply, and access to clandestine organizations. Terrorists gain a source of revenue and expertise in the illicit transfer and laundering of money for their operations. All three groups seek out weak states with feeble justice and regulatory sectors where they can corrupt and even dominate the government. September 11 demonstrated graphically the direct threat to the United States by a narco-terrorist state such as Afghanistan where such groups once operated with impunity. Although the political and security situation in Colombia is different from the Taliban period in Afghanistan – the central government is not allied with such groups but rather is engaged in a major effort to destroy them – the narco-terrorist linkage there poses perhaps the single greatest threat to the stability of Latin America and the Western Hemisphere and potentially threatens the security of the United States in the event of a victory by the insurgent groups. The bottom line is that such groups invariably jeopardize international peace and freedom, undermine the rule of law, menace local and regional stability, and threaten both the United States and our friends and allies.
To meet these challenges, the President has placed the fight against terrorism, international narcotics, and transnational organized crime high on our national security and foreign policy agendas. The State Department and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) play a key role in carrying out the President’s agenda by leading in the development and coordination of U.S. international drug and crime policies and programs. To deal with the increasing linkage and overlap among terrorist, drug, and crime groups, INL has begun shifting from separate programs for counternarcotics and anticrime to a broader and more integrated law enforcement effort to combat the full range of criminal, drug, and terrorist threats. We do this through a comprehensive range of bilateral, regional and global initiatives aimed at building up the law enforcement capabilities of foreign governments so they can help stop these threats before they reach U.S. soil. This includes extending our first line of defense by strengthening border controls of other countries in addition to our own, ensuring that global criminals have no place to hide, attacking international financial and trade crimes, and responding to emerging crime challenges.
INL efforts center on two performance goals:
- International trafficking in drugs, persons, and other illicit goods are disrupted and criminal organizations dismantled. For counternarcotics, this includes reducing drug crop cultivation through a combination of law enforcement, eradication, and alternative development programs in key source countries as well improving the capacity of host nation police and military forces to attack narcotics production and trafficking centers. It also includes strengthening the ability of law enforcement and judicial authorities in both source and transit countries to investigate and prosecute major drug trafficking organizations and their leaders and to seize and block their assets.
- States cooperate internationally to set and implement antidrug and anticrime standards, share financial and political burdens, and close off safe-havens through justice systems and related institution building. International cooperation is key for combating drugs and crime. The job is simply too large for one nation to handle alone. Such cooperation includes working directly with other governments on a bilateral basis as well as multilateral cooperation at the global, regional, and even sub-regional levels in order to set standards, monitor and assist in their implementation, and coordinate on collective actions. Since drug and crime groups tend to thrive best in developing nations where justice sector institutions are weak, institution building is a core ingredient of INL programs. To carry out our institutional development programs, INL works closely with, and draws on, the expertise of sixteen other USG agencies, including USAID, Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security, Defense, DEA, FBI and the Coast Guard.
Program Performance
CY 2002 posed many new challenges as INL focused on strengthening the counterterrorism elements of our program. It also presented new opportunities, including South Asia, where the U.S. and other donors face a unique opportunity to stabilize Afghanistan and the region. Highlights of INL programmatic and diplomatic accomplishments over the year include the following. Colombia. CY 2002 was a banner year for counternarcotics efforts in Colombia, the source of more than 90 percent of the cocaine and approximately 40 percent of the heroin entering the United States. For the first time since the drug cultivation began increasing in the mid-1990s, overall coca cultivation declined by approximately 15 percent while cultivation in the key coca provinces of Putumayo and Caqueta declined by more than 50 percent. That level of coca cultivation has the potential to produce 680 metric tons of cocaine, down from 795 metric tons in 2001. These declines are the direct result of the robust U.S.-assisted aerial eradication program, which sprayed over 122,000 hectares of coca in 2002, a 45 percent increase over 2001, itself a record year. In addition, the spray program destroyed more than 3,000 hectares of opium poppy, a 67 percent increase over 2001. With the addition of more capable spray airplanes, Colombia plans to do even more aerial eradication of both coca and heroin poppy in 2003 and beyond. On the interdiction side, Colombia military and police counterdrug forces destroyed 129 cocaine-processing labs and nearly 1,247 cocaine base labs while seizing more than 94 metric tons of cocaine and 30 metric tons of coca base, a jump of more than 50 percent over 2001. Perhaps most important, President Uribe’s commitment to get tough on drug trafficking and narco-traffickers has ushered in a new political climate and a step-up in counternarcotics and counterterrorism operations around the country. We are currently coordinating with the Colombian government to see how best to use expanded Congressional authorities in support of Uribe’s new national security strategy. Since USAID began implementing alternative development programs in late 2000, its activities have benefited more than 20,000 families and supported more than 15,000 hectares of licit crops in both coca and poppy areas. The alternative development program has also completed more than 200 public infrastructure and income-generating projects in 11 municipalities in key coca provinces, including construction of roads, bridges and sewer systems and rehabilitation of schools. Other USAID projects have improved local governments Bolivia and Peru. Even with a very strong overall eradication effort in 2002, Bolivia witnessed a 23 percent net increase in coca cultivation due to rapid replanting by cocaleros and the Government's reluctance to conduct forced eradication in the coca-rich Yungas province in the face of strong and violent cocalero opposition. In Peru, following a slow start, including a temporary suspension of eradication operations in some regions due to intimidation by organized cocaleros, the government eradication program accelerated during the last four months of the year and reached its goal of 7,000 hectares. As in Bolivia, however, replanting led to an overall, albeit smaller (8 percent), increase in cultivation. Despite these increases, cultivation in both countries remains significantly below the peak years of the mid-1990s and far below the levels in Colombia. Even with these increases, the total Andean coca crop declined by about 8 percent in 2002. The challenge for 2003 and beyond in Peru and Bolivia is to consolidate the successes of previous years and support continued aggressive and successful eradication programs despite cocalero and other opposition.
Mexico. Under the Fox Administration, cooperation between the United States and Mexico in fighting drug trafficking and other transnational crime has significantly improved. During 2002, the Government of Mexico (GOM) extradited 25 fugitives to the United States, up from 17 in 2001, but denied extradition in three high profile cases due to differences over sentencing laws. Mexican law enforcement agencies and military personnel continued their successful targeting of major drug trafficking organizations and their leaders, including the arrest of 36 major fugitives wanted on drug charges in the U.S. Opium poppy cultivation, which is widely dispersed in small plots in isolated areas, dropped slightly under Mexico’s intensive, primarily manual, eradication program. To raise the profile and urgency of counternarcotics, the Fox Administration unveiled an ambitious six-year National Drug Control Plan in 2002 that called on Mexican society and institutions to wage a frontal assault against all aspects of the drug problem, including production, trafficking, and consumption. Following September 11, the United and Mexico significantly stepped up cooperation on border security to ensure tighter screening of both people and goods.
Afghanistan. Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan resumed following September 11, and Afghanistan resumed its position as the world’s largest producer of heroin in 2002. Without an organized security force or rule of law, the drug trade and the revenues and criminal groups generated by it will undermine the stability of both Afghanistan and the region. Following the fall of the Taliban, the U.S. and other members of the international community laid the groundwork for rebuilding Afghanistan’s almost completely destroyed security and criminal justice systems. Under pressure from the U.S. and others, the new Afghan government announced a ban on the cultivation of opium poppy; set up a Counternarcotics Directorate under the National Security Council (where it will have needed visibility and access); supported UK eradication programs (that reduced the spring 2002 crop by an estimated 30 percent) and U.S. alternative development programs; and began to directly press provincial governors to support eradication. INL is working closely with countries taking the lead on reestablishing Afghan public security capabilities, including Germany, which is providing training and equipment to the national police; Italy, which is developing and modernizing the judicial system; and the UK, which is creating mobile counternarcotics forces.
Pakistan. Immediately after September 11, we designed a $73 million supplemental assistance package that is now helping to strengthen Pakistan’s critical 1,500-mile border with Afghanistan against penetration by traffickers, terrorists, and other illegal combatants. To provide much-needed mobility for border units, we delivered, on an accelerated basis, five helicopters (training of personnel is nearly completed) and more than 1,100 vehicles along with communications equipment. This assistance will significantly improve Pakistan’s ability to patrol and monitor the frontier. On the narcotics side, Pakistan, which was once the third largest producer of heroin, continued to trim away at the dwindling cultivation of opium poppy.
Alien Smuggling. To improve USG enforcement and other response efforts, INL is working with several federal agencies to develop the Migrant Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons Coordination Center. When fully operational, the Center will bring together federal agencies representing policy, law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomacy to allow faster conversion of intelligence into effective enforcement actions. Since foreign governments are often reluctant to commit resources to what they see as a victimless crime, INL has been actively engaging in “consciousness raising” with our foreign counterparts, including urging governments to sign, ratify and implement the UN Transnational Crime Convention and its protocol on migrant smuggling. The latter commits governments to criminalize smuggling, strengthen law enforcement cooperation, tighten border controls, and ensure prompt return of smuggled migrants.
Border Security. Post-September 11, INL began to review migration management and document issuance and control systems in the Western Hemisphere, with initial assessments conducted in Jamaica, Honduras, and Belize. We developed a range of programs for improving border control for selected target governments and provided assistance to several countries. This includes $25 million in the 2002 supplemental for assistance to Mexico to strengthen screening at key airports and border crossing points. Work is currently underway on agreements to share advanced passenger information for airline passengers entering the United States, Mexico, and Canada and to expand frequent travelers programs to allow faster crossings for bona fide passengers while permitting more careful screening of others.
Fighting Corruption. Early in his Administration, President Bush identified the fight against corruption as a key foreign policy objective. In support of this objective, INL has been providing political and financial support for UN negotiations to establish the first global convention against corruption. The initial three rounds of negotiations in 2002 produced a draft text; completion of the agreement is expected in early 2004. INL also provided assistance and experts to help more than 60 countries implement anticorruption commitments through mechanisms within the OAS, Council of Europe, Stability Pact Anticorruption Initiative for Southeast Europe, and the ADB/OECD Asian Anticorruption Initiative. As part of a long-term process to help build popular support against corruption among the next generation, INL developed a Culture of Lawfulness education program that targets middle-school children in several countries.
Financial Crimes and Money Laundering. Terrorists and their supporters often employ the same methods and exploit the same financial systems as money launderers. Moreover, the tools used to combat terrorist financing are in many ways similar to the means used to deter money laundering. Following September 11, INL helped lead an interagency process to identify and deliver assistance to the 19 countries at greatest risk for terrorist financing. We also played a key role in expanding the scope of the 31-member Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the world’s standard-setting body on money laundering, to develop eight new standards on terrorist financing, including improved regulation of alternative remittance systems and steps to prevent exploitation of charitable organizations for terrorist financing. As in the past, INL provided financial and political support for regional FATF-like bodies, such as the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, the Asia/Pacific Group and others. The members of these bodies have committed to meet international anti-money laundering standards and undergo mutual evaluation by peers. INL provided assistance to many of the jurisdictions on FATF’s list of Non-Cooperating Countries and Territories to help improve their performance and “graduate” from the list.
Civilian Police Program (CIVPOL). To meet urgent needs in countries emerging from violent conflict, INL is taking measures to enhance the USG capacity to identify, train, equip and deploy civilian police, law enforcement and justice advisors to participate in multilateral peacekeeping and complex security operations. Using PKO and SEED money, INL is managing program implementation involving approximately 775 police, advisors and justice experts in seven countries, including over 600 uniformed and armed U.S. police to conduct law enforcement operations in UN peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and East Timor. INL is also implementing programs that have helped establish, train, and equip 5,500 members of the new Kosovo Police Service as well as provide training for the 2,500-member East Timor Police Service and more than 20,000 existing local police in Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Serbia. Using funds from the 2002 Counterterrorism Supplemental, INL is cooperating with key donor countries to initiate programs to help rebuild the justice sector and national police in Afghanistan.
Law Enforcement Training. Our four International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEAs) have adapted their curricula to address current global threats with special emphasis on counterterrorism issues. We have signed a bilateral agreement with Costa Rica, which must be approved by the Costa Rican parliament, to establish a new ILEA in San Jose. We hope this ILEA can begin operations in 2003. The permanent facility for ILEA Gabarone opened in 2003. In 2002, the ILEAs, geared to regional issues and problems, provided training for 2,400 foreign law enforcement officials. In addition, approximately 9,500 officials benefited from bilateral training courses. This figure was below the target because DEA, FBI, Customs and other training agencies shifted their resources to counterterrorism operations in the aftermath of September 11.
Trafficking in Persons. According to some experts, at least 700,000, and as many as 4 million people, primarily women and children are trafficked around the world each year, where they are subjected to economic and/or sexual exploitation. Using INL funding, the Department’s Office to Monitor and Combating Trafficking in Persons assessed the progress of 165 governments in addressing trafficking in 2002 and published the findings in the second annual Trafficking in Persons Report. The Office also funded over 60 anti-trafficking programs in some 35 countries, including shelters for trafficking victims, support for return and reintegration for victims, law enforcement training, and assistance in drafting anti-trafficking laws. The Department also continued to engage in a strong outreach program aimed at governments, international and regional organizations, private groups and the media to increase awareness about trafficking, which is a form of modern day slavery.
Program Justification
The FY 2004 INL budget request of $1.01555 billion is designed to support President Bush’s comprehensive strategy for combating the global threat of narcotics, organized crime, and terrorism. It also reflects INL’s shift away from separate programs for counternarcotics and anticrime to a broader and more integrated law enforcement approach. The request builds on and strengthens ongoing initiatives in the Andean region, South Asia, and international law enforcement training, which were developed in the FY 2002/2003 budget cycle and related supplemental appropriations. While attacking the core targets in Latin America and Asia, the strategy focuses on strengthening host nation capabilities through institution building so that key countries can bolster their own effectiveness in fighting international drugs and crime. It is a long-term approach that underscores the need to create competent and honest counternarcotics and anticrime forces in countries where laws and institutions are weak, and it promotes more effective action in nations where motivated and capable enforcement organizations are hampered by a lack of public awareness and political will. The strategy also supports efforts by multilateral organizations to reduce drug crop production in those major growing areas where our access is limited, such as Burma. Finally, the budget request will enable INL to bring a broader range of anticrime tools to bear in the fight against terrorism. This includes aggressive diplomatic initiatives to bolster international cooperation, backed by an expanded international training program through International Law Enforcement Academies. It places special attention on money laundering and financial crimes.
The primary focus of the FY 2004 budget request is our counternarcotics efforts in Latin America, a regional approach aimed at eliminating the cocaine and heroin trafficking out of the Andean Ridge and Mexico. The budget supports programs initiated under the FY 2000 Emergency (Plan Colombia) Supplemental and continued under the Andean Counterdrug Initiative. The request will allow us to advance our source country approach against the cocaine threat in South America; it will provide for alternative development resources to buttress successful crop control efforts; it will allow continued materiel and logistical support to the police and military to block drug shipments out of the producing areas and through key transit zones; and it will furnish the training and other institution-building assistance needed to strengthen the judiciary’s ability to resist trafficker corruption and to prosecute major cases successfully.
Country Programs – $871.5 millionColombia ($463 million). Colombia supplies approximately 90 percent of the cocaine sold on American and European markets and continues to be the focus of our counternarcotics effort. FY 2004 programs will build on the momentum established in 2002 and expected in 2003. The increasingly successful aerial eradication program – which targets coca and opium poppy at their most vulnerable point, in the field before harvest – remains the centerpiece of our program. With delivery of the final Plan Colombia spray airplanes in 2003, the aerial eradication program will move into high gear, surpassing the two record spray years of 2001and 2002. At the same time, our overall counternarcotics program faces a major challenge in FY 2004. Our air assets and the units we support will be increasingly called on to take a more active mission to attack narco-terrorist assets and personnel, defend vital infrastructure, and rescue victims kidnapped by insurgent groups. To support President Uribe’s commitment to regain state authority over all of Colombia and establish “democratic security”, we are requesting $463 million to strengthen our eradication, interdiction, alternative development, and police and justice institution building programs. Support for the Colombian Army (COLAR) Counterdrug (CD) Mobile Brigade will provide the lift and mobility needed for striking at high-value narco-terrorist targets throughout the country. Alternative development projects will focus on introducing alternative legal economic activities in areas of illicit cultivation, developing economic and commercial infrastructure, and providing technical assistance and training to improve the skills, efficiency, and economic capacity of affected rural inhabitants and areas.
Andean Counterdrug Initiative (ACI) – $731 million
Peru and Bolivia ($207 million). To prevent traffickers from simply relocating elsewhere, we will continue to augment our counterdrug efforts in countries neighboring Colombia. These programs complement and support specific host government initiatives. Programs for Peru ($116 million) and Bolivia ($91 million) include support for both interdiction and eradication and for their highly effective alternative development programs. For Bolivia, this means forced eradication in the Chapare, where all coca is illegal, and voluntary agreements in Yungas, where Bolivian law allows up to 12,000 hectares (nearly half the national crop) of legal coca cultivation for traditional uses. The planned FY 2004 upgrade of the Peruvian counternarcotics air fleet will provide greater mobility for expanded and improved monitoring, eradication, and interdiction operations.
Other ACI countries ($61 million). Given its close proximity to key coca-producing areas of Colombia, Ecuador ($35 million) could be drawn into conflict with narco-insurgent groups operating along the border. To help guard against this, INL will continue to assist Ecuadorian National Police efforts to combat traffickers, especially along the northern border and at air and sea exit ports. INL programs will also support alternative development projects, including the promising Sustainable Cacao Tree Crop Research project. Increasingly successful counternarcotics efforts in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia have aggravated the drug transit problem for neighboring Brazil. FY 2004 assistance to Brazil ($12 million) will focus primarily on operations designed to secure the border with Colombia and the adjoining, largely unpopulated Amazonian basin against traffickers and other crime groups. INL will also support drug awareness/demand reduction programs in Brazil, which has become the world’s second largest consumer of cocaine after the United States. Colombian traffickers heavily exploit neighboring Venezuela’s location on the Caribbean to ship drugs to the U.S. To help plug this leak, U.S. assistance to Venezuela ($5 million) will provide training, equipment, and management support to improve detection, seizure, intelligence, and investigative capabilities of law enforcement bodies and support two U.S. Customs officials assigned to the Port Security Program. INL assistance to Panama ($9 million), Colombia northern neighbor, will also focus on border control enhancement and will include training and equipment to both border and port security units. Counternarcotics and law enforcement assistance will strengthen GOP ability to interdict shipments of narcotics, arms, precursor chemicals, and stolen vehicles as well investigate contraband shipping as part of the Black Market Peso Exchange. Since Panama’s dollar economy and relatively sophisticated banking system make it attractive for money laundering operations, our assistance also includes training for prosecutors and the Financial Investigation Unit to enable them to detect, investigate and successfully prosecute such operations.
Other Latin America – $47.5 million
Mexico ($37 million). Special case Mexico is the transit zone for most illicit drugs entering the U.S. and a source country for heroin and marijuana. It is also the overwhelming source of host country or transiting illegal aliens entering the U.S., some with links to terrorist organizations. FY 2004 programs ($37 million) will focus on continuing the excellent counternarcotics and law enforcement cooperation of the first two years of the Fox Administration while helping the GOM reform and modernize its criminal justice sector. While the GOM invests heavily in reform and modernization, U.S. training, technical assistance, and equipment can speed up the process at key points and for critical projects. Assistance for the justice sector will focus on institutional development and rooting out corruption, including professionalization of police agents, prosecutors, and both state and federal judges. Assistance will also be directed at strengthening the specialized anti-money laundering units belonging to the Treasury Department and the Attorney General. INL assistance will also support improved border security and counternarcotics enforcement. Border security projects – both equipment and training – will parallel inspection and other improvements on the U.S. side, including a special lane for pre-vetted frequent travelers. Our counternarcotics assistance will provide equipment and technical assistance to strengthen investigative and interdiction abilities as well as support for modernizing the air wing of the counternarcotics unit.
Africa – $7 millionThe Africa program is aimed at states in the region with a demonstrated commitment to good governance and democratic policing and/or states with the political will to achieve these goals. Much of the funding for FY 2004 will go to the law enforcement and criminal justice sectors of key states Nigeria and South Africa. FY 2004 funds will be used for programs designed to upgrade core policing skills through modernization of academies and teaching methodologies and to improve forensic capacity. Programs will improve the capacity of governments to combat trafficking in narcotics and other contraband, illegal migration, public corruption, and financial fraud.
Asia and the Middle East – $86 millionAfghanistan ($40 million). The fall of the Taliban regime and Operation Enduring Freedom have provided a rare opportunity to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan, whose law enforcement and justice sectors were almost destroyed by nearly three decades of civil strife. The stakes are high. Without a major effort to root out the drug trade and create a sustainable criminal justice system, including an organized security force, Afghanistan will again fall back into a decentralized culture of anarchy and lawlessness, a potential sanctuary for terrorist groups. Following the U.K. lead on counternarcotics, INL will fund alternative development and income generation programs in poppy-growing areas to promote voluntary eradication and provide sustainable alternative crops and income opportunities. We will also help establish trained and equipped counternarcotics units capable of operating against armed trafficking groups in the provinces. To complement German-led efforts to rebuild the Afghan national police, INL will provide basic training, include human rights awareness, for lower-level cadres, first in Kabul and then moving into the provinces by the end of 2004. Assistance to the justice sector includes help in rebuilding the physical infrastructure – including court and training facility refurbishment – and in the training and professional development of judges and other personnel.
Central Asia. Drawing on funding from the Freedom Support Act (FSA) account, we will build on new cooperative relationships in the region by supporting a broad range of law enforcement programs: anti-money laundering, border control, criminal justice assistance, and counternarcotics special investigative units. These activities should parallel and reinforce counterterrorism efforts in the region and are designed to counter the spillover effects from Afghan drug production on these vulnerable states and Russia.
Pakistan ($38 million). September 11 shifted the focus of INL assistance to Pakistan from drug control and related programs to law enforcement, including security of the critical border with Afghanistan. The border security program is designed to build on and expand initiatives undertaken with the 2001 and 2002 supplemental appropriations to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies in Pakistan to secure the western border against terrorists, criminal elements, and narcotics traffickers. Additional aircraft in FY 2004 will increase the rapid response capability for the Northwest Frontier Province. INL funding of the comprehensive law enforcement program is part of a longer-term move to reform, upgrade, and professionalize the broad range of law enforcement agencies in the urban centers.
Thailand ($2 million). Thailand is a long-time U.S. ally in the fight against drugs and host to one of our regional ILEAs. At one time a source country for heroin, Thailand’s aggressive counternarcotics strategy kept opium poppy cultivation below 1000 hectares in 2002, for the fourth year in a row, and at the lowest level since the mid-1980s. Thailand also plays a leading regional role in combating illegal drugs and other transnational crime. Even so, Thailand serves as a transit zone for heroin and the sharp increase in methamphetamines coming out of Burma and other states in the region. At U.S. urging and with our assistance, Thailand is in the process of amending virtually all of its basic narcotics laws and all substantive and procedural criminal laws, including those that pertain to money laundering. Our FY 2004 funding will continue to support this important and on-going effort. The Philippines ($2 million) is a crossroad where the global wars on terrorism and drugs come together. The joint U.S.-Philippine campaign to root out Islamic terrorists in the southern Philippines in 2002 exposed systematic shortcomings in the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) law enforcement bodies and practices. To meet the GRP request to help upgrade law enforcement performance, INL will provide training, technical assistance, and some equipment to upgrade both the police and the larger criminal justice system.
Global Programs – $130.2 millionInterregional Aviation Support ($70 million). In FY 2004, the Interregional Aviation budget will continue to provide core level services necessary to operate a fleet of 164 fixed and rotary wing aircraft supporting aviation activities in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru, border security operations in Pakistan, and, as needed, programs at other temporary deployment locations. Operations include eradication, mobility, interdiction, monitoring, and logistical support. The primary focus will continue to be the aggressive aerial eradication of Colombian coca. The establishment of host-government self-sufficiency remains a central goal for air wing operations in each country and all are progressing toward meeting that objective.
International Organizations ($14 million). The International Organizations budget is a good example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Multilateral approaches allow financial and political burden-sharing, generate buy-in by more countries, provide a legal framework for countries needing one to justify domestic legal changes, and allow the United States to reach areas, such as Burma, where U.S. influence is limited. Assistance from international organizations (versus bilateral assistance) is often more palatable politically for countries with sovereignty sensitivities. FY 2004 programs include financial support to foreign countries ratifying and implementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and to countries that may elect to ratify and implement the UN Convention on Corruption currently under negotiation and expected to be opened for signature in late 2003. Counternarcotics assistance to the UN Office for Drugs and Crime will support alternative development programs in Burma and Laos – the second and third largest source of illicit heroin worldwide -- and where opium poppy cultivation levels are now on the decline; the development and maintenance of data banks to track chemical precursors and to train law enforcement officials on the issue of chemical precursors; and the global program against money laundering, primarily to countries not on the terrorism financing priority list, since the latter are currently receiving the bulk of the our bilateral assistance. Funding for the OAS/Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) will focus on technical support and training to address shortcomings in country drug programs identified in the Mutual Evaluation Mechanism (MEM).
Drug Awareness/Demand Reduction ($5 million). While INL programs focus almost exclusively on reducing the supply of drugs entering the United States, our demand reduction programs have become increasingly important in recent years as governments and organizations increasingly realize that no country is immune to drugs and that sharing best practices increases prospects for success. INL will continue our technical assistance to source/transit countries and networking efforts with public and grassroots anti-drug organizations, which now number more than 3,500 organizations in the Western Hemisphere and over 7,000 in more than 70 countries worldwide, including many faith-based organizations in Muslim countries. Such efforts address the President’s new goals and priorities, generate international support for U.S. antidrug policies, improve the U.S. image abroad, and mobilize international opinion against the drug trade. They also help close off emerging new markets – and revenues – for traffickers and narco-terrorists.
INL Anticrime Programs ($8 million). INL will continue to support a range of diplomatic and programmatic anti-crime initiatives, funded in part from the Anticrime account, but also from other INL budget line items, such as International Organizations and some country accounts. The most prominent programs will focus on money laundering, corruption, alien smuggling, border security, and various cyber-related threats, but funds will also be used to meet a wide range of other law enforcement training needs in scores of countries around the world.
Alien Smuggling. In FY 2004, INL will continue to contribute to the development of the Migrant Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons Coordination Center. We will also focus on strengthening the investigative and prosecutorial capacity to combat alien smuggling in Ecuador, a major transit point for Asian migrants being smuggled into the United States. Internationally, the Department will continue to press other states to ratify the protocol on migrant smuggling to the UN Conventional Against Transnational Organized Crime.
Border Security. FY 2004 funding will expand the Third Border Initiative to three additional Caribbean states, support completion of earlier efforts in Central and South America, and begin programs in South and Central Asia. INL assessments will help identify the most vulnerable countries. We will concentrate on those countries that are major transit locations used by migrant smugglers and terrorist organizations. Programs will focus on controlling the flow of people – both regular and irregular – improving security of travel documents and issuance systems, and strengthening immigration management systems.
Cyber Crime, Intellectual Property Rights and Critical Infrastructure Protection. FY 2004 INL programs will support the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace by providing training and technical assistance to build legal regimes and law enforcement in key developing nations like the Philippines, Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina, India, and Mexico, and work as part of an interagency process to advance cyber security initiatives bilaterally and in forums like APEC and the OAS. In addition, INL will fund programs to combat intellectual property theft, which has a growing IT component.
Fighting Corruption. Like money laundering, corruption is integral to terrorist, trafficking, and organized crime groups. FY 2004 funding may support foreign countries, should they elect to sign, ratify, and implement the UN Anti-Corruption Convention (which may be opened for signature in late 2003) as well as norm-setting, implementation review, and institutional development of regional organizations and groups such as GRECO, OAS, Stability Pact, ADB-OECD (Asian Pacific Region), and the Global Coalition for Africa. Bilateral assistance will focus on a range of transitional states and emerging democracies, including Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Colombia, and the Baltic states. We will also support follow-up to the third biennial Global Forum on Fighting Corruption, a U.S.-initiated process that will take place in South Korea in 2003.
Financial Crime and Money Laundering. USG money laundering and terrorist financing efforts and initiatives will continue to widen in FY 2004. INL will continue to support this effort with training and technical assistance aimed at countries that need to improve their ability to combat terrorist financing, financial crimes, and money laundering. Such assistance will focus on tracking, freezing and seizing terrorist assets; developing money laundering laws and regulations that meet international standards; and providing law enforcement bodies with financial investigative and prosecutorial skills. We will also continue to support FATF and the FATF-like regional organizations, with special emphasis on expanding the FATF-like organization that has been established in South America.
G-8 and Lyon Group. When the United States serves as President of the G-8 (Group of Eight) in 2004, INL will use the U.S. chairmanship of the Crime (Lyon) and Counterterrorism (Roma) Experts Groups to advance U.S. initiatives to combat international crime and terrorism, including increasing G-8 assistance for capacity building. Other initiatives include establishing a shared international data base to combat child internet pornography, developing agreed principles in critical information and infrastructure protection (CIIP), and begin implementing an expected 2003 agreement on G-8 biometric standards for travel documents.
Trafficking in Persons ($10 million). FY 2004 programs will focus on assistance-eligible countries in Tiers 2 and 3 of the TIP Report. This includes legislative initiatives in Central America, a transit region to the United States, and member states of ECOWAS in Africa, a region with significant child labor. Where countries already have laws on the books and are already receiving training, we will provide needed equipment, such as computers, forensic rape kits, radios and vehicles. In other areas, assistance will focus on protection of victims, including awareness training for criminal justice officials, creation of victim-sensitive forensic interview room either within shelters or police stations, and establishment of hotlines. The Trafficking Office also plans to support anti-trafficking public information campaigns in underserved areas such as Goa in India, southern Brazil, and rural parts of Thailand, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
International Law Enforcement Academy ($14.5 million). Our regional International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEAs) not only provide high-quality training and technical assistance to foreign law enforcement officials, they also encourage strong partnerships among participating regional countries, and foster relationships between U.S. trainer-agencies and their counterparts in the region. The ILEAs also develop an extensive network of alumni who become leaders and decision-makers in their respective countries and who are more likely to apply rational, democratic solutions to administrative and operational problems and challenges of law enforcement, according to extensive surveys of ILEA graduates. In FY 2004, INL will continue to provide funding and foreign policy oversight and guidance for the existing ILEAs, including continual updating of curricula to reflect emerging and increasing threats, such as terrorism, trafficking in persons, corruption, and environmental crime. We hope that the planned ILEA for Costa Rica will begin operations in 2003 and have a full training program in FY 2004.
Civilian Police Program ($2.7 million). In FY 2004, INL will continue to increase the cadre of civilian police, law enforcement and justice advisors, from 500 established in FY 2003 to 750, en route to our eventual goal of over 2000 highly qualified, trained and equipped personnel available for duty abroad on short notice to serve in international peacekeeping and complex security missions. INL expects to manage over $100 million in funds, largely from non-INL sources, to support programs in the Balkans, East Timor, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
INL Budget by Program
($000)
|
FY 2002 |
FY 2002 |
FY 2003 |
FY 2004 |
|
|
ACI COUNTRY PROGRAMS |
||||
| Bolivia: Interdiction & Eradication | 48,000 | — | 49,000 | 49,000 |
| Alt Dev/Institution Building | 39,600 | — | 41,727 | 42,000 |
| Colombia: Interdiction & Eradication | 243,500 | — | 284,000 | 313,000 |
| Alt Dev/Institution Building 1 | 130,400 | 6,000 | 149,200 | 150,000 |
| Ecuador: Interdiction & Eradication | 15,000 | — | 15,000 | 20,000 |
| Alt Dev/Institution Building | 10,000 | — | 15,896 | 15,000 |
| Peru: Interdiction & Eradication | 75,000 | — | 59,500 | 66,000 |
| Alt Dev/Institution Building | 67,500 | — | 68,552 | 50,000 |
| Brazil | 6,000 | — | 6,000 | 12,000 |
| Venezuela | 5,000 | — | 2,075 | 5,000 |
| Panama | 5,000 | — | 4,500 | 9,000 |
| Total ACI Country Programs |
645,000 |
— |
695,450 |
731,000 |
| Subtotal: Interdiction & Eradication | 397,500 | — | 420,075 | 474,000 |
| Subtotal: Alt Dev/Institution Building | 247,500 | — | 275,375 | 257,000 |
|
INCLE COUNTRY PROGRAMS |
||||
| Other Latin America | ||||
| The Bahamas | 1,200 | — | 1,100 | 1,000 |
| Guatemala | 3,500 | — | 2,500 | 3,000 |
| Jamaica | 1,550 | — | 1,200 | 1,500 |
| Mexico | 12,000 | 25,000 | 12,000 | 37,000 |
| Latin America Regional | 10,000 | 4,000 | 9,500 | 5,000 |
| Subtotal | 28,250 | 29,000 | 26,300 | 47,500 |
| Africa | ||||
| Nigeria | 2,270 | — | 1,760 | 2,250 |
| South Africa | 2,034 | — | 1,442 | 1,770 |
| Africa Regional | 3,196 | — | 3,498 | 2,980 |
| Subtotal | 7,500 | — | 6,700 | 7,000 |
| Asia and the Middle East | ||||
| Afghanistan | 3,000 | 60,000 | — | 40,000 |
| Indonesia | — | 4,000 | — | — |
| Laos | 4,200 | — | 2,500 | 3,000 |
| Pakistan | 2,500 | 15,000 | 6,000 | 38,000 |
| Pakistan Border Security Supplemental | 73,000 | — | — | — |
| Philippines | — | — | — | 2,000 |
| Thailand | 4,000 | — | 3,700 | 2,000 |
| Asia/Middle East Regional | 5,050 | — | 4,500 | 1,000 |
| Southwest Asia Initiative | — | — | — | — |
| Subtotal | 91,750 | 79,000 | 16,700 | 86,000 |
| Total INCLE Country Programs | 127,500 | 114,000 | 49,700 | 140,500 |
|
INCLE GLOBAL PROGRAMS |
|
|
|
|
| Interregional Aviation Support | 60,000 | — | 65,000 | 70,000 |
| Systems Support/Upgrades | 6,000 | — | 4,000 | 5,000 |
| International Organizations | 16,000 | — | 12,200 | 14,000 |
| Drug Awareness/Demand Reduction | 5,000 | — | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| Regional Narcotics Training | 5,000 | — | 4,500 | 1,000 |
| INL Anticrime Programs | 15,330 | — | 12,300 | 8,000 |
| Civilian Police Contingent | — | — | 4,670 | 2,700 |
| International Law Enforcement Academy | 14,500 | — | 14,500 | 14,500 |
| Trafficking in Persons | 7,670 | — | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| Total INCLE Global Programs | 129,500 | — | 132,170 | 130,200 |
|
Program Development & Support |
13,000 |
— |
13,850 |
13,850 |
| Total ACI Programs | 645,000 | — | 695,450 | 731,000 |
| Total INCLE Programs | 270,000 | 114,000 | 195,720 | 284,550 |
|
TOTAL INL PROGRAM 2 |
915,000 |
114,000 |
891,170 |
1,015,550 |
1 The $6 million supplemental funding for Colombia was appropriated as INCLE funding.
2 The totals do not include FSA and SEED Act funding transfers from USAID, nor do they include PKO funding.
INL Budget by Function
($000)
| FY 2002 Actual1 |
% |
FY 2003 Actual |
% |
FY 2004 Request |
% |
|
| Narcotics Law Enforcement and Interdiction | 318,738 | 31.0 | 333,075 | 37.4 | 380,296 | 37.5 |
| Eradication and Crop Control | 156,187 | 15.2 | 162,631 | 18.2 | 166,540 | 16.4 |
| Alternative Development | 236,170 | 23.0 | 226,295 | 25.4 | 223,927 | 22.0 |
| Administration of Justice and Support for Democracy | 57,871 | 5.6 | 56,780 | 6.4 | 63,250 | 6.2 |
| Border Control | 103,000 | 10.0 | 3,500 | 0.4 | 48,000 | 4.7 |
| International Organizations | 16,000 | 1.6 | 12,200 | 1.4 | 14,000 | 1.4 |
| Drug Awareness and Demand Reduction | 13,360 | 1.3 | 10,654 | 1.2 | 11,435 | 1.1 |
| Regional Narcotics Training | 5,000 | 0.5 | 4,500 | 0.5 | 1,000 | 0.1 |
| Anticrime Programs | 65,273 | 6.3 | 14,176 | 1.6 | 38,500 | 3.8 |
| Civilian Police Program | — | 0.0 | 4,670 | 0.5 | 2,700 | 0.3 |
| International Law Enforcement Academy | 14,500 | 1.4 | 14,500 | 1.6 | 14,500 | 1.4 |
| Trafficking in Persons | 7,670 | 0.7 | 10,000 | 1.1 | 10,000 | 1.0 |
| Program Development and Support | 35,231 | 3.4 | 38,189 | 4.3 | 41,402 | 4.1 |
|
Total |
1,029,000 |
100.0 |
891,170 |
100.0 |
1,015,550 |
100.0 |
1 Figures in this column include the $73 million Pakistan Emergency Response Fund (ERF) Supplemental and the $114 million FY 2002 Supplemental.
The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.