Pubdate: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 Source: Blade, The (OH) Copyright: 2001 The Blade Contact: http://www.toledoblade.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/48 Author: Ann McFeatters Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?203 (Terrorism) DEA BOSS SAYS TERROR HURTS WAR ON DRUGS WASHINGTON - The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration says that since Sept. 11's terrorist attacks, his agency has felt a major impact as the FBI's resources are "spread thin'' and diverted from investigating illegal drug cases to terrorism, even though the two increasingly are related. Asa Hutchinson, who resigned as a congressman from Arkansas to take the DEA job Aug. 8, said yesterday, "Certainly, it's having an impact when FBI agents are pulled off drugs for terrorism [investigations] in Boca Raton [Fla.] and Boston," he said. "We have to make up the slack.'' He said "discussions are under way'' on whether this will lead to a "functional shift'' in allocation of resources at a time when the DEA has begun a new assault on medical marijuana. There have been conflicting reports of the war on terrorism's impact on the drug war. Mr. Hutchinson said terrorist cells in the United States have been forced underground, preventing them from selling as many drugs to fund terrorist organizations as they had been. But last month the new head of the Customs Service, Robert Bonner, said terrorism has replaced drug smuggling as the top priority of his agency. Hundreds of Customs officials have been redeployed from drug investigations to provide 24-hour inspections at the Canadian border, he said. And as the war in Afghanistan continues, U.N. officials say Afghan farmers are beginning to defy the ruling Taliban's year-old ban on growing opium poppies, meaning there could be a global upsurge in supplies of opium and heroin. While Afghanistan is a source of about one-fifth of the heroin trade in cities along the East Coast, Mr. Hutchinson said that Afghanistan's drug trade clearly is used to finance terrorist activities. That is changing as U.S. anti-drug officials have focused more sharply on terrorism's drug connection since the strikes. In congressional testimony last month, Mr. Hutchinson said flatly, "The sanctuary enjoyed by [Osama] bin Laden is based on the existence of the Taliban's support for the drug trade. Both drug traffickers and terrorists use many of the same methods to achieve their evil ends." - --- MAP posted-by: Josh