Source: Houston Chronicle 
Author: Nancy Mathis
Contact:  
Pubdate: Fri, 12 Dec 1997
Website: http://www.chron.com/

HIGHTECH PLAN TO ZAP DRUGS

Xrays, Sensors To Be Set On Border With Mexico

MIAMI  The United States will embark on a new fiveyear plan that
includes hightech Xrays and fencing to halt the flow of drugs from the
Mexican border into Texas, Arizona and California, the nation's drug czar
said Thursday.

Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said the ambitious goal will be announced next month when
President Clinton makes his State of the Union address to Congress.

"We're going to try and stop drug smuggling into the United States across
the MexicanU.S. border in the next five years  substantially stop it 
while still allowing our second biggest trading partner to continue
economic cooperation," McCaffrey said.

Mexico has emerged as a major transit point for cocaine shipments into the
United States, resulting in a tremendous increase in corruption and
violence in Mexico and along the border. The increased smuggling also has
heightened tensions between the two nations.

The idea, McCaffrey said, is to force drug trafficking from Latin America
out into the seas and "not wrecking the U.S. Mexico civil population with
corruption and violence. And, by the way, we're going to follow them to
sea, too."

McCaffrey said the United States will clamp down on drug trafficking from
Mexico by using advanced Xray machines now used to verify Russia's
compliance with arms reduction treaties.

"Now, we've got 20,000 men and women in the Customs Service who are trying
to stop these drugs with handheld mirrors and handheld technology,"
McCaffrey said.

The hightech machines, used to Xray intercontinental ballistic missile
shipping containers, will be used to Xray trucks crossing the 39 border
checkpoints into Texas, Arizona and California. The machines already have
been tested at two border crossing points in California.

"They work. They absolutely work. You can see 20 kilograms of cocaine
inside lead in the battery container or welded into walls of the truck, or
suspended by wires in a load of wet concrete," McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey noted that the United States has the world's biggest open border
with Mexico, where crossings are made by 260 million people, 82 million
cars, 3.5 million trucks and 340,000 rail cars. He also said that truck
traffic can back up for 10 miles at the check points.

McCaffrey said the southwest border initiative is still being developed. He
said he, Attorney General Janet Reno and CIA Director George Tennant have
finished phase one of their intelligence review and will spend the next six
months looking at the results.

"My guess is, give us five years of hard work, get technology in the hands
of the Customs Service, do fencing and sensor technology and an adequate
border patrol, and we can make it so difficult to smuggle these incredibly
lethal cargoes across the border that they'll go to sea," he said.

McCaffrey said he has discussed the fiveyear strategy with Clinton briefly
and has been ordered to have a fiveyear plan ready by the State of the
Union speech at the end of January.

McCaffrey appeared to be jumping the gun on the president's State of the
Union address. Asked if the fiveyear commitment was new, McCaffrey said,
"It will be when the president announces it."

Clinton, in Miami for a series of fundraising events for the Democratic
Party, also toured a Coast Guard cutter and praised Coast Guard personnel
for their recordsetting efforts this year at drug interdiction on the high
seas.

Clinton announced that he would commit another $73 million of the
Pentagon's $800 million antidrug budget to help support increased drug
interdiction efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"In the area of interdiction, the Coast Guard and its partners have just
completed a banner year, increasing arrests of traffickers by 1,000 percent
and seizures of cocaine by 300 percent," Clinton said.

The Coast Guard has been at the forefront of Operation Frontier Shield,
which has focused on stopping the drug flow from Puerto Rico and the Virgin
Islands. The operation resulted in the seizure of 31,127 pounds of drugs
and 119 arrests as of Nov. 30.

The president attended three fundraising events in Miami, capping a
twoday trip that included two other fundraising sessions for Democrats in
New York. The president raised $250,000 from 500 people for Florida's Lt.
Gov. Buddy McKay, who will run for governor next year. McKay's chief
Republican challenger likely will be Jeb Bush, son of former President Bush.

Clinton also was the chief draw at two evening events expected to raise a
total of $1 million for the cash strapped Democratic Party. Clinton
attended a dinner at the plush Biltmore Hotel where 750 people paid $1,000
each. He later attended a private dinner for 40 couples who paid $25,000
per couple. 

Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle