Pubdate: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) Copyright: 2006 Sun-Sentinel Company Contact: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159 Author: Curt Anderson, Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) TERROR MAY PUSH DRUGS ASIDE Rumsfeld: Use U.S. Choppers Elsewhere MIAMI . Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants to end Army helicopter support for a joint U.S.-Bahamas counterdrug program, raising questions about the future of a decades-long effort that has resulted in hundreds of arrests and the seizure of tons of cocaine and marijuana. The Army's seven Blackhawk helicopters and their crews form the backbone of Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration credits for helping drive cocaine and marijuana smugglers away from the Bahamas and its easy access to Florida's coast. But in a May 15 letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Rumsfeld said it was time after more than 20 years to shift the military assets elsewhere. The letter comes as the Defense Department is increasingly stretched thin by ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and multiple military commitments around the globe. The Bahamas counterdrug program, Rumsfeld wrote, "now competes with resources necessary for the war on terrorism and other activities in support of our nation's defense, with potential adverse effects on the military preparedness of the United States." The letter asks Gonzales to help identify "a more appropriate agency" to provide the air support. Rumsfeld said he wants to complete the military pullout from the program by Oct. 1, 2007. The DEA is the other major player in the program, but it has only one helicopter in the Bahamas. The Coast Guard currently has three Jayhawk helicopters assigned to the program, but DEA officials say those combined assets would be insufficient to provide quick response along the vast, 700-island Bahamas chain. "We would need some resources to be able to do that," Mark R. Trouville, chief of DEA's Miami field office, said in an interview. The Miami DEA office oversees U.S. counterdrug efforts in the Caribbean and Latin America. The Justice Department, of which DEA is a part, declined to comment Wednesday on Rumsfeld's letter. Trouville said discussions were under way regarding which agency might assume the military's role in the Bahamas. Defense Department officials at the Pentagon and the U.S. Southern Command in Miami did not return telephone calls Wednesday seeking further comment. When the program began in 1982, up to 90 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States from Latin America came into Florida through the Bahamas and Caribbean. Now, most of the cocaine moves across the U.S. southwestern border, in part because of the pressure on traffickers operating off Florida's coasts. "If we start letting our guard down here now, and we reduce our presence here, it will be more economical [for smugglers] to come back this way. And certainly the state of Florida is ground zero for that," Trouville said. Since 2000, the program has resulted in the seizure of more than 25 tons of cocaine, 82 tons of marijuana and the arrests of 786 people, according to DEA statistics from April. The Army and Coast Guard helicopters operate from three bases in the Bahamas, coordinating with Bahamian police vessels and DEA agents to interdict drug shipments. The program also plays a role in identifying and stopping human smugglers, particularly those from Haiti that are often caught on old, overcrowded vessels. Bahamian officials did not return telephone calls Wednesday seeking comment. The Bahamas' ambassador to the United States, Joshua Sears, was returning from an Organization of American States summit in the Dominican Republican and unavailable for comment, said embassy officials in Washington. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman