Pubdate: Mon, 28 Aug 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260
Fax: (713) 220-3575
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Michael Hedges

UP THROUGH THE RANKS: NEW DEA CHIEF SAYS YEARS HERE INVALUABLE

For Donnie Marshall, who began his climb to the top of the Drug Enforcement
Administration by making drug busts in Houston in the early 1970s, there has
been a circular nature to his career.

"I spent two years working in Houston; it was my first posting," said
Marshall, 53, who took over the reins of the DEA in June. "I had a lot of
shaping experiences there."

Marshall's current and former colleagues hope his decades of drug-fighting
experience will make him a special leader of the DEA.

That's because Marshall is the first person from the ranks, or from any
level of the DEA, ever to rise to head the agency.

"It is good for the (agency) that he was appointed, for a couple reasons,"
said Tom Cash, who spent years in charge of the DEA Miami office and is a
security analyst for Kroll Associates. "First, those working there wanted
some evidence that an insider could get to the top. And he has a grasp of
the DEA's goals and mission.

"Sometimes in the past, it would be a year or two before the person put in
charge knew what he was doing."

Another lauding the move was Robert Nieves, former DEA chief of
international operations who heads the Association of Former Federal
Narcotic Agents.

"I am a big Donnie Marshall fan, and I've known him since we were both in
basic school in 1969," Nieves said. "Donnie is a smart guy who knows the DEA
inside and out. That will be a great help to the organization."

Marshall replaced Thomas Constantine, who was appointed in the early 1990s
after heading the New York state police.

Constantine created discomfort in the agency by shifting the DEA's mission
from international operations to a more cooperative approach with state and
local law enforcement, forming Mobile Enforcement Teams for street-sweeping
drug missions.

John Walters, former deputy drug czar in President Bush's administration and
an expert on drug enforcement, said, "The MET teams haven't really worked.
You could improve things for a while and ingratiate yourself with state and
local authorities, but then everything would go back the way it was. It was
not creating a deficit in the drug supply."

A veteran DEA agent said: "We're all hoping to get back to basics, to focus
on quality cases and forget about local arrest numbers. We need the kind of
big, long-term investigations that can take down a high-level trafficking
organization."

Constantine could not be reached for comment.

Marshall conceded that, at least in the early days, the MET approach "was a
little too much of a street-sweep operation." While Marshall said he felt
the program grew in effectiveness, "I'm in the process of reviewing that
whole program. ... I want to make sure we are staying true to our mission of
not just impacting the street dealers but the suppliers as well."

Marshall said he had strong opinions about what he would like to do --
focusing more on intelligence-gathering and having a strategic approach that
aims at dismantling the leadership of critical drug organizations.

Walters said Marshall will have a tough job as DEA head, despite the
advantage of being an insider because of a growing public sense of futility
with the war on drugs.

"People don't have the sense that what the federal government is doing
against drugs is making any difference," he said. "The DEA has had plenty of
money in recent budgets. And there are vulnerabilities to these drug
organizations. Yet there is little sign that the drug market is shrinking."

The DEA budget now stands at $1.55 billion.

Marshall said he is well aware of public frustrations with anti-drug
efforts.

But he said: "I think absolutely we can make a difference, and we have made
a difference. At the height of the 1980s drug epidemic, there were 26.5
million regular users of illegal drugs. Today, it is down to 13 million
users. So aggressive law enforcement can have an impact."

Marshall also acknowledged there is a growing "suspicion in the public of
federal law enforcement in general, including DEA."

"We have to do a better job in law enforcement of doing things to overcome
those problems," he said, "or we do risk the public trust eroding.

"Sometimes in this country, we get caught up in the negatives, and we lose
sight that the vast majority of law enforcement officers are honest,
honorable public servants."

There are other challenges for DEA as well. While the agency has avoided
some of the high-profile scandals that have snared other federal law
enforcement agencies, such as the failed Waco operation involving the FBI
and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, questions were raised about
the effectiveness and fairness of some DEA tactics.

The heavy dependence on confidential informers -- snitches with shady pasts
and often an incentive to entrap others -- has come under scrutiny.

Marshall addressed the issue indirectly, saying he believed it was critical
for the DEA to develop all forms of intelligence, including the use of
technology ranging from computers to AWACS surveillance aircraft.

Some in Washington believe the DEA needs a profound change in its approach.

"What you may need is a Bill Bennett type," a Senate official said,
referring to the former drug czar and education secretary in the Bush
administration. "You have to review the entire management structure and come
up with a visionary new approach that can convince the public that this is
not business as usual -- making lots of arrests and seizures but not
fundamentally impacting the problem."

But Marshall said he had no plans for a major overhaul of the DEA. He said
the agency can make a huge impact by getting back to basics and eliminating
key drug-smuggling organizations.

"I don't think I am going to make any radical changes in the direction that
we're going," he said. "I think we do need to do a better job of
intelligence assessments to identify ... vulnerabilities of drug
organizations and then exploiting those vulnerabilities."

Marshall also said he would enforce strict standards of conduct in the DEA.
He said he has dismissed several staffers for violations of DEA rules. "In
order to maintain high standards, you have to call hard shots," Marshall
said.

But with a new presidential administration coming in January, and a new
attorney general likely to follow, Marshall said he does not know if he will
get the time to implement his vision.

The head of the DEA is appointed by the president, usually upon a
recommendation by the attorney general, who is the agency head's direct
boss.

"When you talk about the change of a presidential administration, anything
can happen," said Marshall, who has relocated his wife, Catherine, and three
children from Texas to the Virginia suburbs. "I want to stay for a few
years. I think I have a good sense of what is needed in DEA and can provide
strong leadership."

Marshall was reared in San Augustine in East Texas.

He worked his way through Stephen F. Austin State University as a
firefighter, then, on a buddy's suggestion, applied for a job in the Bureau
of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the predecessor to the DEA.

"It sounded like an interesting job," he said.

Marshall began in Houston in an era when Mexican marijuana and heroin
smuggling were the principal targets of federal drug agents.

Marshall said he got "a great deal of experience" in Houston, working
against Mexico-based cartels.

"In some ways, not a lot has changed," he said. "And while they weren't
quite as sophisticated and violent then, that experience serves me very well
right now because the Mexican traffickers are once again the greatest drug
threat to our country."

With mixed emotions, Marshall recalled one case from his time in Houston --
the pursuit of a Tampico, Mexico, medical student turned heroin dealer.

Marshall said he and a partner tracked the dealer to the border along
Brownsville and busted him with 5 kilos of brown heroin.

The dealer made bail and fled. "About three or four years later, he killed a
Mexican federal policeman," Marshall said. "Then a couple years after that,
he was killed by the Mexican feds. It made a tremendous impression on me
about the potential violence associated with drugs.

"That was back before the violence became as commonplace as it is today."

Marshall worked up through the DEA's ranks into the 1990s, with postings in
the United States and overseas. After a stint in Dallas, he ran the DEA's
air wing out of Fort Worth.

That job was, he said, like "running a small airline."

After a methodical climb through the DEA's ranks, Marshall has held a series
of positions in the DEA's headquarters since 1995. He ran the DEA's domestic
operations, then became chief of operations before being appointed deputy
director in 1998.

"He was being groomed for the director's job if and when the administration
decided to do the right thing and appoint someone from inside the agency," a
Justice Department official said.

When Constantine left after six years, Marshall was the obvious choice to
succeed him, the official said.

There is a flip side to a DEA insider rising to the top. Marshall has formed
close friendships with many DEA managers and now he has to be the boss.

But he said his nomination by the president and confirmation by Congress as
the DEA head "changed my frame of reference. I realized very intensely that
my first responsibility is to the American people. ... While I'm still
firmly planted in the DEA, I don't take that higher obligation lightly."

And to fulfill that obligation, he'll reach back to a past that began in
Houston, Marshall said.

"As administrator in the year 2000, I have to constantly look back at my
experiences in the early '70s to guide me."
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