Pubdate: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) Copyright: 2007 The Arizona Republic Contact: http://www.arizonarepublic.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24 Author: Sean Holstege Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) NEW ARIZ. DEA CHIEF SETS SIGHTS ON MEXICO CARTELS Elizabeth Kempshell wants to team up with state and local agencies to crack down on Mexican drug cartels. The new head of Drug Enforcement Administration's office in Arizona also wants to dismantle crime syndicates from top to bottom. Kempshell, 45, succeeds Timothy Landrum as special agent in charge. He was promoted to the field office in Los Angeles this year. Kempshell grew up in rural Georgia and went to an all-girls college to study nursing. She turned to law enforcement when her only brother was killed by a drunk driver. She takes office amid climbing marijuana seizures in Arizona. In 2005, Arizona surpassed Texas for the amount of marijuana seized. At best, counter-drug teams seize 10 percent of the marijuana crossing the border and far lower percentages of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. We sat down with Kempshell to find out her plans for Arizona. Question: How does Texas compare with what you expect to see here in Phoenix? Answer: Texas has a massive amount of border to take care of and most of the traffickers worked close to the border. . . . Here, it's a smaller area compared to Texas and for the major organizations, their headquarters are about 200 miles into Sonora. Q: What did that teach you? A: It really gave me a glimpse of how the transportation of drugs into the United States has changed in the last 25 years. The Mexican traffickers are now the primary organization responsible for bringing drugs into the United States. Q: Describe your duties. A: I supervised what we call of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force, which included state and local agencies. What made that so unique is that it brought together all the resources under one roof, so you didn't have to call somebody and say, "Let me introduce myself." Q: What's your top priority for Phoenix? A: I want to focus on the major Mexican traffickers who are using Arizona as a gateway into the United States and all of North America. . . . My focus for this area is to attack those organizations, to completely disrupt and dismantle them. Not just going after and picking off one or two people at a time. I want to do significant investigations that take out the whole organization from top to bottom. Q: What is a unique challenge to Arizona? A: You've got organizations here that just don't stop here. They move out to California, Chicago, the East Coast and Atlanta, and that's a challenge in itself. You don't have organizations just operating here so the majority of the drugs don't stay here a very long time. It comes in and it goes out. I've got to destroy that infrastructure they've built here in Arizona, and that's one of the unique challenges. Q: The attack in Cananea last spring, which left 25 dead, sent a lot of shock waves and a sense that border violence is escalating. Is it a spasm or a trend? A: There was a confrontation between the Gulf and the Federation (cartels) and that spiked the violence. From the intelligence and the investigations that we've been doing, we've seen that there has been an alliance formed between the Federation and the Gulf. As long as you have this area, the southwest border, being responsible for a significant portion of the drugs coming into the United States and all that money involved, you're going to see violence. Q: Which is more dangerous for Arizona, a truce or a partnership? Rather than going after each other and disrupting each other's smuggling routes, they're now teaming up and can bring even more resources to the effort. What kind of problems does that present? A: Any time you have two significant drug trafficking organizations teaming up, there's a challenge. The same way you have the federal agencies teaming up their resources, we make a much stronger united attack against the drug trafficking organizations. And we're going to face similar problems. Q: What hurts cartels most? Cutting off their money supply, their guns, what? A: Any disruption hurts them, but what they're in the business for is the money. They're not into it to satisfy people's habits. They're into it for the money. And if we can take out their money, keep them from making profits on what they're selling, deny them their revenues, then we've made a big impact. Q: What cooperation do you get and need from authorities in Mexico? A: The relationship that the United States currently has with Mexico is unprecedented. President Calderon has demonstrated time and time again since he took office in December his commitment to go after the significant drug traffickers. The proof of that is when he extradited Osiel Cardenas (founder of Los Zetas and Gulf cartel leader) when I was in Texas. I was part of the team that took him off of the plane. That was a monumental time in my career. . . . When he saw us with our DEA jackets on as we stepped onto the plane, we saw him just look down and shake his head. He had no idea he was in the United States. Q: There have been some high-level discussions between the U.S. and Mexican governments about a direct aid package to Mexico to help it fight the drug war. What does it entail and what should it entail? A: I'm just focused on what we're doing right here in Arizona and the relationship with Mexico in helping us do our jobs here in Arizona. Q: How and why did smuggling shift to make Arizona the biggest marijuana route and what can you do to combat that shift? A: Down in Tucson, we seized more than 1 million pounds of marijuana this year, and that's the most they've seized in the last three or four years. So it has been on the increase. Why, I wouldn't venture to guess. Q: Arizona has become the busiest marijuana smuggling route in recent years. Does that shift reflect that more dangerous drugs are coming over the Arizona border? A: Not with this organization here. These agents are ready to do their job. They have the right focus and they know who the major traffickers are that are bringing dope into this area. Agents in Phoenix, Tucson and all along the border are working focused investigations against the most significant traffickers. I have all the confidence in the world they're going to be able to dismantle and disrupt these organizations. Q: Do you have the tools you need? A: I want to combine resources with the other agencies, including state and local, where we are a force to be reckoned with. Q: Do you have the tools you need? A: I want to combine resources with the other agencies, including state and local, where we are a force to be reckoned with. Q: From all your experience with different forms of narcotics, have you formed an opinion about which is the most dangerous? A: Right now, what gives me the most concern is meth, because that is what is moving so rapidly across the country and the effects of the addiction are so devastating. The other one that gives me a lot of concern are kids getting pharmaceuticals over the Internet without a true doctor-patient client relationship. If you type "Vicodin no prescription required" and you can get, you know, 1.4 million hits. Q: Does the trafficking itself make any one more dangerous? A: Those two are horrible situations, but the other one that we continue to highlight is marijuana, because people who try marijuana are apt to try other drugs. People think it's a harmless drug. It's not harmless. It's a gateway drug. Q: So many drugs cross the border despite all the DEA's efforts, and only a small fraction gets stopped. How do you avoid getting frustrated? A: Every little success means a lot. Every time you take down an organization. Every time you do an undercover buy. Those are the successes that keep you coming back. It's an unbelievable feeling when you work a case for a year, and done wire intercepts and undercover buys and surveillance and untold number of hours and you can put those handcuffs on somebody and you stop that organization from bringing those drugs into the United States. Q: Talk about what going on with meth labs and where the proceeds go. A: I do know that the majority of labs have all been moved down to Mexico, and a number of the precursors come from other countries. Experience with other investigations tells me that we know a significant amount of the proceeds generated from narcotics go back to the FARC (a Colombian paramilitary group declared a terrorist organization), and that's something we have to be mindful of in our investigations. That's why it's so significant that we follow the money. We need to know where these funds are going. That is a part of our national security. We need to make sure that we're not only following the drugs but the money that's brought back. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman