Pubdate: Fri, 01 Aug 2003
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2003 Associated Press
Author: Curt Anderson, Associated Press Writer
Cited: Drug Enforcement Administration ( www.dea.gov )
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?194 (Hutchinson, Asa)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/bush.htm (Bush, George)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Karen+Tandy

FIRST WOMAN TAKING HELM OF DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION

WASHINGTON -- Karen P. Tandy, the first woman to run the Drug
Enforcement Administration, said Friday her main goal is to focus on
dismantling larger international drug trafficking organizations and
choke off their money supply.

Tandy, a prosecutor and senior Justice Department official, was
confirmed for the top DEA post in a unanimous Senate vote Thursday
night. She replaces Asa Hutchinson, who is now undersecretary for
border security and transportation at the Homeland Security Department.

Tandy said the DEA, with about 4,600 agents in over 50 countries,
should work to take apart major drug trafficking organizations, from
their commanders to their smuggling operations to the distribution
cells and bank accounts in the United States.

"To successfully wipe out these organizations, we have to take all
their component pieces out at once," Tandy said.

The DEA was the subject earlier this year of some harsh criticism from
the White House Office of Management and Budget, which said the agency
had no clear-cut strategies and goals and was "unable to demonstrate
progress in reducing the availability of illegal drugs in the United
States."

Tandy said the criticism was that DEA had "lost our focus on the hard
press on organizations" and also on tracking drug money. That is
changing with the DEA gaining more agents and a broader mandate as the
FBI diverts many of its drug enforcement agents to counterterrorism
duties, she said.

For the last two years, Tandy was an associate deputy attorney general
in the Justice Department, focusing on national drug enforcement
strategy and on related money laundering and forfeiture issues.

Previously she held several posts in the Justice Department's criminal
division. Before that she was a federal prosecutor in Virginia and
Washington. She is a native of Fort Worth, Texas, and 1977 graduate of
Texas Tech University Law School.

She said she is "incredibly honored" to be the first woman to lead the
DEA, noting how times have changed since she started her career.

"I was told by one potential employer that he didn't believe women had
the killer instinct necessary to be a criminal prosecutor," Tandy
said. "I am thrilled at how far we've come in the last 25 years in
this country."

Bush also has announced his intention to nominate Michele M. Leonhart
to be the DEA's deputy administrator. Leonhart currently runs the
DEA's office in Los Angeles and has previously worked in the San
Francisco office and at DEA headquarters in Washington.

Leonhart's nomination must also be confirmed by the
Senate.

On the Net:

Drug Enforcement Administration: http://www.usdoj.gov/dea
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin