Pubdate: Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source: Journal Gazette, The (IN)
Copyright: 2006 The Journal Gazette
Contact:  http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/908
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

HOOSIERS PROTEST END OF DRUG-CHOPPER PLAN

Two Hoosier lawmakers have asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to 
reverse his plan to end Army helicopter support next year for a 
program that intercepts drug deals in the Bahamas.

In a letter last month to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Rumsfeld 
said it was time after more than 20 years to shift the equipment 
elsewhere. The military is being stretched thin by the fighting in 
Iraq and Afghanistan and other commitments around the globe.

"If you withdraw the assets," Reps. Mark Souder, R-3rd, and Dan 
Burton, R-5th, wrote to Rumsfeld with three other Republicans, "no 
other agency is capable of filling the void, and another smuggling 
route will be left significantly undermanned."

Since 2000, the U.S.-Bahamas program has resulted in 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's seven Blackhawk helicopters and their crews form the 
backbone of Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, which the Drug 
Enforcement Administration credits with helping drive cocaine and 
marijuana smugglers away from the Bahamas and its easy access to Florida.

The Bahamas anti-drug 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."

He said he wants to complete the military pullout from the program by 
Oct. 1, 2007.

The DEA has only one helicopter in the Bahamas. The Coast Guard has 
three Jayhawk helicopters assigned to the program, but DEA officials 
said the equipment would be insufficient to provide quick response 
along the vast, 700-island Bahamas chain.

When the program began in 1982, up to 90 percent of the cocaine 
smuggled into the U.S. 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.

Sylvia A. Smith of The Journal Gazette contributed to this story.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman