Pubdate: Fri, 17 Nov 2006
Source: Palatka Daily News (FL)
Copyright: Palatka Daily News 2006
Contact:  http://www.palatkadailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2098
Author: Ron Bartlett

Drug Buster:

AFTER 28 YEARS WITH DEA, SPECIAL AGENT SETTLES HERE

The man who oversaw the manhunt for Pablo Escobar, one of the world's
most notorious cocaine traffickers, now lives in southern Putnam County.

He has a simple thought concerning America's war on drugs. He said
that if Americans really wanted to win the war on drugs then Americans
need to quit buying.

Jerry Rinehart spent 28 years as a special agent with the Drug
Enforcement Administration, combating the flow of illegal drugs into
this country. He helped put together the case against Carlos Lehder,
the first successful extradition and prosecution of a Medellin cartel
member in history. He fought on the front lines of the drug war,
destroying cocaine manufacturing labs in the mountains of Colombia.
And he worked undercover, infiltrating and exposing a heroin smuggling
operation in Baltimore from the inside out.

After playing football at Marshall University, Rinehart graduated with
a teaching degree in 1968 and moved on to a coaching job in Merritt
Island. After he finished his first year coaching and teaching, he
received a telegram from the old Federal Bureau of Narcotics and
Dangerous Drugs, the precursor to the DEA.

"They started recruiting me," Rinehart said.

He began his career in Baltimore in 1970, then transferred and opened
the bureau in Charleston, W. Va. In 1985, he was asked to head up the
office in Jacksonville.

Rinehart said that it was at this time that his interest in the
Colombian drug cartels began. There are two major drug trafficking
cartels in Colombia, Cali and Medellin, located in the respective
cities of the same name.

"Medellin was headed up at that time by Pablo Escobar and Carlos
Lehder," Rinehart said. "Lehder was running with a group of people
that were bringing loads of drugs n coke mainly -- into
Jacksonville.

Rinehart said that, despite Miami Vice-type sterotypes that promote
the South Florida drug image, Jacksonville was actually where most
cocaine entered the United States. As a result, he said that the
Jacksonville DEA bureau had the best criminal case to prosecute Lehder.

Rinehart and his staff were able to indict and issue an arrest warrant
for Lehder, and then managed to leap the most difficult hurdle n
extradition.

"We prosecuted Carlos Lehder here," Rinehart said. "He was given two
life terms and is still in a Federal high-security prison today. With
Carlos gone, Pablo took over."

After successfully prosecuting the Lehder case, Rinehart was
transferred to DEA headquarters in Washington D.C., a role he stayed
in until he became the executive assistant to the administrator for
the DEA.

"When he was about to retire he asked me what I wanted to do,"
Rinehart said. "I told him I would like to take over the operation
down in Bogota, Colombia."

Bogota was, and still is, considered one of the most dangerous places
on Earth.

According to Rinehart, in the U.S., the magic number for homicides is
400.

It you were a city that hit 400 first you were labeled as the murder
capital of the United States.

"In Bogota, from Friday to Sunday they average 300 homicides in the
city," he said.

Even as recently as 2002, there were 32,000 homicides in all of
Colombia. That averages 78 murders per 100,000 people. By comparison,
the U.S. averages seven per 100,000.

Rinehart was put in charge of all DEA enforcement operations in the
country. His job was to gather intelligence on various cartels and do
investigations, in conjunction with the Colombian national police, to
support DEA investigations in the U.S.

 From the moment he arrived in-country with his wife, Marylou, he
traveled in a car with thick bulletproof glass. Everywhere they went
was by convoy, with three vehicles always in formation.

"We had a follow car with a driver and a machine gunner, a lead car
with a driver and machine gunner and our car," he said. "Everywhere we
went, everyday for five years."

He said an important part of his role was to provide the human element
to intelligence gathering, physically tracking traffickers -- with both
sides fully armed and combat-ready. Rinehart would not elaborate on
his direct experience other than to say he was in, "numerous, numerous
firefights" with traffickers.

He said there wasn't a night or day that went by that he didn't hear
gunfire. The embassy where he and his wife both worked had bullet
holes in the windows.

They were the only DEA family in the apartment building they shared
with Colombian officials, because having more than one would make the
building a target. When he and his wife slept at night they each had a
gun an arm's length away on a nightstand.

Instead of going bowling he and his wife spent their weekends on the
firing range.

He admitted that there were two attempts on his wife's life while they
were there.

"You just learn to live that way," he said. "We had a job to do. You
know how important your job is and it's just what you do. You get to
where you don't even think about it."

At the time of his arrival, Pablo Escobar was one of the wealthiest
billionaires in the world. He was also one of the most ruthless
killers on the planet, responsible for countless murders, torture and
bombings of competitors and Colombian officials. In order to avoid
extradition to the U.S. he turned himself into the Colombian police
and was incarcerated at Envigado prison in the western part of
Colombia, an area controlled by rebel factions.

"This was not a prison," Rinehart said. "He had built this compound
and he was running his drug activities from there -- controlled by
police that he had paid off."

Rinehart said that when it comes to who is in charge in Colombia, the
answer is simple:

"People with the money rule," he said. "They (drug dealers) had the
power. They controlled the government. If they wanted you to become
president, they make you president."

When Escobar's lavish lifestyle became widely known, public opinion
and U.S. pressure forced the Colombian government to attempt to
apprehend him. Rather than risk extradition, Escobar "escaped" from
Envigado and the largest manhunt until the time of Osama bin Laden was
under way.

Escobar attempted to put pressure on the U.S. and Colombian
governments by setting off a string of bombs in downtown Bogota.

Rinehart said that bombings on a scale of Oklahoma City were a weekly
occurrence.

"They would stack bodies like cord wood on the street (after an
explosion)," he said.

Rinehart said that Escobar's tactics are a Colombian
trademark.

"If they want to put pressure on you and you don't bend to the
pressure, they don't start by killing you," he said. "They kill your
wife, your kids, your grandmother, your brothers, your sisters n then
kill you."

During what was known as the Escobar's "reign of terror" 182 Colombian
police officers were killed, along with countless civilians who died
during the bombings. Escobar, himself, was shot to death after the
safe house he was hiding in was discovered and a gun battle ensued.

Rinehart said that removing Escobar, while important, did little to
stem the flow of drugs.

"In 1998, when I retired, we seized $47 million in assets," he said.
"Think about all of the other offices throughout the state: Miami,
Orlando, Panama City, Tallahassee, Tampa and what they seized. It's
just a drop in the bucket of what actually comes through and then is
returned back into Colombia. They own banks in Florida. If they didn't
have a bank to launder their money, they built one."

Rinehart said that he believes the U.S. fights the war on drugs to the
best of its ability, but it is a battle driven by demand.

"It's a simple thing," he said. "We are the problem. We are the
consumers."

He said that hurdles should be set up that make drug use too risky a
recreation to pursue.

He believes there should be mandatory drug testing at all levels. To
get a driver's license: drug test. To graduate high school or get a
GED: drug test. To get any job: drug test.

Rinehart said that the argument that drug testing infringes on civil
liberties does not hold any water.

"Is there a "right" to use drugs?" he said. "Think about the money we
have to spend in prisons, drug rehab, insurance on overdoses, The Navy
and Coast Guard. (Drug testing) will cost you nothing. The cartels
will get out of the drug business if you or I don't want it."

Since leaving the fast and deadly world Colombia behind, Rinehart and
his wife have found the unhurried speed of Putnam County more to their
liking.

"We always really liked Northern Florida and the Jacksonville area,"
he said. "It's quiet and beautiful."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake