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DEA
Congressional Testimony
Statement
by:
Donnie R.
Marshall
Administrator
Drug Enforcement Administration
Before
the:
Committee
on Government Reform, Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and
Human Resources
Date:
May 1, 2001
Note: This document
may not reflect changes made in actual delivery.
Good Afternoon, Chairman
Souder and distinguished members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for the
opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee today to discuss the very
timely and important topic of U.S. Air Interdiction Efforts in South America.
The loss of life resulting from the April 20th incident in
Peru is indeed tragic, and I join all of you in honoring the memories
of those that perished. I extend my deepest condolences to the families
and friends of those that lost their lives, as they are undoubtedly struggling
through some very difficult times in the aftermath of this incident. Like
many of our domestic and foreign law enforcement counterparts, the courageous
men and women of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) work 24 hours
a day, seven days a week to combat global drug trafficking. On behalf
of everyone in DEA, I would like to express my appreciation to the Subcommittee
for your consistent support of our agency, and for all of drug law enforcement.
I would like to talk
to you today about three topics concerning our nation's overall drug interdiction
efforts. First, it is important to specify that DEA carries out its primary
function as an Investigative law enforcement agency to confront
and dismantle the world's most sophisticated drug trafficking organizations.
Second, I will provide an account of how we at the DEA attempt to use
a seamless cycle of investigations, law enforcement intelligence, and
interdiction in order to dismantle these criminal syndicates. And third,
I will explain how DEA's efforts relate to the specific function of drug
interdiction, which is a critical component of putting these criminals
out of business.
In DEA, we have crafted
our Strategic Plan to enhance our ability to conduct investigations that
serve to provide maximum impact with respect to disrupting and dismantling
major drug trafficking organizations. Clearly, drug trafficking is an
international business that affects each and every one of us on a daily
basis. Decisions made in Bogota or Mexico City have a direct and immediate
impact on what occurs in our major cities across the United States.
The international
drug syndicates who control drug trafficking today from the source zone,
through the transit zones, and into the United States, are intricately
interconnected. The Caribbean corridor, including Haiti, the Dominican
Republic, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas, has long been a favorite smuggling
route used by the Colombian based crime groups. These traffickers, with
their vast resources, often have access to highly sophisticated technology.
They use sophisticated cellular phone cloning technology. They steal numbers
that are already assigned to legitimate users, use them for a short period
of time--usually less than a week--then move on to new numbers. The sophisticated
operations of these traffickers show that, without question, they comprise
vast, highly coordinated, international enterprises.
This brings me to
my second point-- how the DEA builds cases against these criminals. In
short, we employ a coordinated and international approach, just as the
drug traffickers themselves are doing. As I mentioned earlier, this process
involves the implementation of a seamless cycle that allows investigative,
law enforcement intelligence, and interdiction functions to feed off of
each other, creating a synergistic effect that benefits our overall drug
law enforcement efforts. This process is not linear in nature, and does
not have as its primary end product the interdiction of shipments of illegal
drugs, rather we focus on permanently removing the organizations that
produce and distribute these drugs.
Operation Journey
provides us with an outstanding example highlighting the value of the
seamless integration of law enforcement intelligence information leading
to interdiction, arrests, and prosecutions. Operation Journey targeted
Ivan De La Vega from Baranquilla, Colombia. The De La Vega organization
transported multi-ton shipments of Colombian cocaine overland into Venezuela,
where it was stored until loaded on ocean-going merchant vessels. DEA
law enforcement intelligence was vital in providing leads to JIATF-East
interdiction assets about suspect merchant ships, resulting in the seizure
of more than 12 tons of cocaine. Using the full array of evidence derived
from these seizures, federal criminal indictments were obtained in Miami,
Florida for De La Vega and his organization. De la Vega and more than
forty others were arrested throughout Colombia, Venezuela, Europe, and
the United States. De La Vega was ultimately expelled from Venezuela to
Miami to face charges against him there.
The bottom line is
that, by targeting the syndicates' communications and infrastructure with
our investigative efforts, we frequently acquire quality law enforcement
intelligence about their workings. Through the hard work and dedication
of DEA employees worldwide, and other police investigators and prosecutors
with whom we work, we find out the who, what, where, when, and how of
illicit drug businesses whose activities ultimately impact upon communities
across our nation. This information is used to target and ultimately neutralize
major drug trafficking organizations--regardless of where they are-- that
erode the quality of life here in the United States.
In order to accomplish
this objective, we compile the law enforcement intelligence into a threat
assessment that gives us a more detailed picture of the situation. The
next step is to use this information to support the interdiction of drug
shipments, which is traditionally handled by U.S. Customs, the U.S. Coast
Guard, and selected support components of the Department of Defense. These
seizures then feed into our investigations and law enforcement intelligence
initiatives, allowing us to indict and arrest these criminals pursuant
to domestic prosecutions.
As you are aware,
DEA operations are both comprehensive and global in scope. I would like
to first address DEA Airwing operations overseas, as this topic
is most relevant to the focus of today's hearing. The DEA Airwing
has general aviation aircraft permanently assigned at many overseas
offices. In Peru, for example, there are two assigned aircraft, a Beechcraft
KingAir 350 and a Beechcraft 1900. The pilots are DEA Special Agents and
the aircraft bear a U.S. registration number. These aircraft are in country
with the full knowledge of the U.S. Embassy and host country officials.
In addition, DEA pilots follow host nation aviation regulations, such
as the filing of flight plans.
Aircraft from the
DEA Airwing support operational missions as required by the DEA Country
Attaché and the Ambassador. The missions include the transportation
from city to city of Special Agents, host country police, prosecutors,
and equipment needed to conduct investigations and operations. On occasion,
aircraft are used to pinpoint the exact location of clandestine laboratories,
drug storage sites, and illegal airstrips.
During the course
of these missions, photographs of suspect sites may be taken using hand-held
35mm cameras. The DEA Airwing has one aircraft specially designed to take
overhead large format photographic imagery. However, this aircraft is
U.S.-based, and not outfitted with classified or sensitive equipment.
Pursuant to international
drug control efforts, some components of the U.S. Government conduct joint
coordinated operations with a Government of Peru air interdiction program
involving the Peruvian Police (PNP) and Peruvian Air Force (FAP). The
program is designed to identify and track suspect drug planes used in
the transport of cocaine HCl and base from Peru to neighboring border
countries of Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia. DEA does not conduct operations
in direct support of this initiative. That said, elements of the American
Embassy Country Team, including the DEA Lima Country Office, have indirectly
supported this program by supplying law enforcement intelligence and coordinating
land based enforcement efforts, such as roadblocks and truckstops
to intercept precursor chemicals, during joint enforcement operations
in the jungle regions of Peru.
There are several
other programs in which DEA agents participate in a coordinating and/or
advisory capacity. The Riverine Program is a U.S. sponsored multi-agency
effort initiated in late 1997. The program is designed to develop a Peruvian
law enforcement force (Peruvian National Police and Peruvian Coast Guard)
capable of efficient control and interdiction on Peru's rivers and waterways.
Participating U.S. agencies from within the U.S. Embassy in Lima include
the Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG), the Narcotic Affairs
Section (NAS) and DEA. In summary, the MAAG and NAS units are responsible
for training, equipment, and infrastructure support. DEA personnel are
responsible for assisting in the collection of law enforcement intelligence,
and serve as observers and/or advisors during the execution of operations
and investigations.
In support of this
program, the DEA Lima Country Office, on a consistent basis, deploys agents
to both Iquitos and Pucallpa, the two main "hubs" of the Riverine Program.
While on temporary duty, DEA agents work hand-in-hand with their PNP counterparts
in the collection of information, recruitment and development of sources,
and the planning and execution of operations designed to interdict drugs
and arrest violators. Additional duties include the coordination and liaison
activities with representatives of the other participating U.S. agencies
in matters of equipment and/or training.
In addition to the
Airbridge and Riverine interdiction programs, DEA personnel participate
in Operation Paradox, which is a Lima Country Team initiative
designed to focus both USG and GOP resources (personnel, equipment and
funding) in the coca growing zones, specifically the Huallaga and Apurimac/Ene
Valleys. To maximize success, the plan calls for the integrated efforts
of interdiction, eradication, alternative development, and public information
to attack cocaine trafficking at its source. Again, DEA's role and focus
remain on the law enforcement investigative side of these efforts.
DEA personnel in
Peru also participate in Operation Excess Baggage and Operation
Stand By, which are programs designed to interdict drugs being transported
by commercial air or maritime vessels. The airport program focuses on
passengers and cargo, while the seaport program concentrates on commercial
shipments of cargo. These actions are performed by both the Peruvian Customs
and the Peruvian National Police, with DEA providing financial, training,
equipment and law enforcement intelligence support. DEA becomes involved
in international investigations stemming from these programs in order
to develop these cases to their full potential. Consequently, the scope,
strength, and magnitude of drug trafficking prosecutions in the United
States are greatly enhanced.
In addition to our
international programs, activities in domestic DEA offices also enhance
overall interdiction efforts. Operation Emerald Clipper (EC)
is a special enforcement program initiated by the DEA Phoenix Division
in 1991. The program focuses exclusively on disrupting the air transportation
capabilities of major drug trafficking groups in Latin America. DEA seeks
to disrupt the infrastructure of these organizations by denying the traffickers'
access by use of asset forfeiture and other efforts to one of their most
vital tools - aircraft.
EC monitors brokers
and companies that cater to trafficker needs, monitors suspect sales and
seizes aircraft for forfeiture prior to export, reports trends in the
use of preferred narco-aircraft, coordinates investigations with foreign
DEA offices and their host nation counterparts to identify owners of seized
or suspect aircraft, and deploys teams to source countries to conduct
training and assist in on-site inspections of suspect aircraft.
EC investigations
have resulted in the identification of numerous sham aviation companies,
aircraft, and individuals involved in the cocaine industry in Latin America.
To date, this program has led to the seizure for forfeiture of approximately
160 planes valued at over $200 million that were owned or otherwise used
by major drug organizations in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela.
EC has significantly denied Colombian trafficking organizations access
to the U.S. aircraft market; no turboprop aircraft have been exported
to Colombia from the U.S. in over three years. Most significantly, EC
actions have caused law enforcement agencies in Latin America to focus
more attention on the essential role that aircraft play in the Andean
cocaine industry and international transportation of cocaine.
The seizures that
are effected during interdiction efforts like the ones previously described
not only result in the arrest of criminals and the seizure of drug evidence.
These efforts also generate new law enforcement intelligence, and increase
the timeliness and comprehensive quality of existing investigations. This
is arguably the most important step of the entire process because the
documents, electronic records, and telecommunications information seized
during interdiction operations are subsequently analyzed by the DEA, and
ultimately provide invaluable data on the structure and function of a
given criminal organization. We can weave this information--even from
seemingly unconnected seizures--together and turn it into more interdictions,
more investigations, and more arrests and imprisonments. The ultimate
effect is that together with our domestic and foreign law enforcement
counterparts, we are systematically working to remove the leadership and
to destroy organizational cohesion of these major drug trafficking groups.
Consequently, the impact of every foreign and international interdiction
and investigative effort reverberates directly back to the heartland of
America in the form of enhanced investigative, law enforcement intelligence,
and interdiction capabilities.
In some ways the
process that I have discussed is similar to a jigsaw puzzle. In the end,
however, that analogy breaks down, because once you complete a jigsaw
puzzle, the picture never changes. In the drug trade, it changes all the
time. Drug traffickers are adaptable, reacting to our interdiction successes
by shifting routes, changing modes of transportation, or even the type
of drug. Our job is to keep up with the changing picture, and we do that
job by continuously feeding the seamless process of investigative, law
enforcement intelligence, and interdiction activities that constitute
the conceptual basis for DEA's role as the world's premier drug law enforcement
agency. Each of these elements is a vital component in our effort to combat
the scourge of the drug trade that plagues our nation. Through our international
and domestic programs, the brave men and women of DEA will use every available
law enforcement tool to confront and neutralize drug traffickers across
the globe. The ultimate beneficiaries of our efforts are the American
people, in the towns and cities across the United States, who deserve
nothing less.
Mr. Chairman, thank
you for the opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee today. I would
be happy to answer any questions that you or other members of the Subcommittee
may have at the appropriate time.
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