Report Questions Effectiveness of Bush Anti-Drug Unit

Efforts of a special unit headed by Vice President George Bush to coordinate the multi-agency drive to halt illicit drugs at the U.S. borders have achieved “minimal” results, Congress’ watchdog agency concluded Saturday.

Although the 2-year-old National Narcotics Border Interdiction System has made some improvements, they “fall far short of what is needed to substantially reduce the flow of illegal drugs into the United States,” according to a report by the General Accounting Office.

Set Up With Fanfare

President Reagan, with much fanfare, established the unit on March 23, 1983, with Bush at its head to coordinate drug interdiction by the departments of Justice, Treasury and Transportation.

Many of the interdiction efforts in which the Bush unit claimed a coordinating role in the 1983-84 period “would have occurred even if (it) had not participated,” GAO investigators found.

In 69 of 77 cases analyzed, marijuana was the drug interdicted, because of the interdiction system’s concentration on smuggling at ports of entry, the GAO said. Heroin and cocaine, regarded as more serious threats, usually do not come into the country through ports of entry, the study noted.

The GAO criticism, immediately challenged by Bush’s office, was issued against the backdrop of efforts by the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies to end the interdiction system’s role by incorporating it into the existing drug intelligence network.

A recommendation has been made to Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III to make Bush’s unit part of the DEA’s El Paso Intelligence Center, but Meese, apparently mindful of the importance that Bush attaches to his high-profile drug-fighting role, has taken no action.

Meredith Armstrong, an assistant press secretary for Bush, said that the vice president intends to continue directing the interdiction system and that the GAO study missed the point of the organization.

She said that the unit, using the clout that goes with the vice presidency, has achieved cooperation of the intelligence community and the defense Establishment in the stepped-up fight against drugs, something lacking before 1983.

The GAO said that the concept on which the unit was founded--a need for improved interagency coordination of drug interdiction--was “sound.” But the study quoted unit officials as saying that their regional centers had received limited intelligence on drug smuggling.

“Because the centers lack such intelligence, it was difficult to make useful recommendations to interdicting agencies for effective actions against drug smugglers,” the GAO said.

GAO investigators did give the interdiction system high marks for helping make military resources available to fight drug smuggling but said that information from the “national intelligence community” had just begun to flow to the unit when the study was completed last November.

One-half of the federal, state and local law enforcement officials questioned by the GAO on their views of the Bush unit said that it either had had no effect or had “somewhat worsened” anti-drug efforts, according to the GAO. About 35% said the unit had improved the efforts to some extent, the study said.

In addition, the GAO raised questions about the interdiction system because last year Congress established the National Drug Enforcement Policy Board to coordinate all federal efforts against drugs, including interdiction. That Cabinet-level board, headed by Meese, has no authority to direct Bush’s actions, and he is not a member, the GAO noted.

“The present organizational placement of (the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System) may limit the board’s ability to facilitate coordination of drug interdiction, a major component of the drug law enforcement effort,” the GAO said.

Bush spokeswoman Armstrong pointed out, however, that Craig Fuller, the vice president’s chief of staff, does sit on the new board’s staff. “Obviously, the vice president can’t report to the attorney general, but he is very interested” in the board’s activities, she said.

The GAO study was done for Rep. Glenn English (D-Okla.), chairman of the House Government Operations’ subcommittee on government information, justice and agriculture. An aide to English said that the subcommittee plans hearings on the Bush unit, probably next month.