Treat Drug Traffickers Like Terrorists, Official Says

Washington in Brief
Source: Washington Post

The United States should employ some of the techniques it is using to fight international terrorism in its war on drugs, the federal drug control chief said yesterday. Interviewed a day before President Bush was due to release his national drug control strategy for 2005, John P. Walters said international drug traffickers shared many characteristics with terrorist networks, although there were also some important differences.

"Maybe the brutal experience we've had with terror helps to make this more concrete and understandable," said Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Like terrorist networks, most drug organizations are no longer centrally controlled, with one command running the trade all the way from production to distribution, or as Walters put it, "from the farm to the arm."

That made the drug trade harder to disrupt, since individual cells that were put out of commission by law enforcement agencies could easily be replaced.

However, Walters said it ought to be easier to go after drug traffickers because the drug trade involved many thousands of people, making it more vulnerable to attack and disruption. "We now have tools and ways of sharing intelligence and looking at these organizations more as businesses."

Newshawk: Nicholas Thimmesch II
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Published: Wednesday, February 23, 2005; Page A08
Copyright: 2005 Washington Post
Contact: letterstoed@washpost.com
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
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