Lawmakers Assail Bush on Coordination Efforts : Panels Charge Inefficiency in Drug War

The nation’s border war against drug smugglers, coordinated by Vice President George Bush, is riddled with inefficiency and lack of resources, congressional investigators who inspected installations nationwide charged Tuesday.

Two years after the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System was created to coordinate the efforts of various drug enforcement agencies, the operation is nothing more than “public relations and promotions” for Bush, Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) asserted. He said he based his conclusions on reports by investigators from both Senate and House subcommittees.

‘Hat Trick II’

Several officials of the drug interdiction system disputed the charges, however, and one said that the office had been “on a learning curve the first year” and had improved since. They cited, for example, the agency’s recent announcement of “Hat Trick II,” a massive drive against illegal drugs being imported from the Caribbean.

But despite such operations, the investigators, who recently traveled to systemwide offices from California to Miami, said that they found officials who were unsure of their missions and who could muster little cooperation among drug-fighting agencies that compete for publicity. Moreover, the system is of little help in resolving the difficulties, the investigators said.

Indeed, the ineffectiveness of the system is such that it “makes me wonder if the vice president’s office isn’t the garbage disposal for unwanted issues,” said Rep. Glenn English (D-Okla.), whose House Government Operations subcommittee on government information, justice and agriculture was among the panels that conducted the probe.

‘I Take the Fifth’

One U.S. Customs Service official, asked if he expected Bush to help the agency, responded tersely: “I take the Fifth,” referring to the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits self-incrimination.

The criticism by English’s subcommittee and the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the Treasury, postal service and general government, of which DeConcini is the ranking minority member, is the latest in a series of blows that have been dealt to the drug interdiction system.

Last summer a General Accounting Office report asserted that the system’s role of coordinating the efforts of the Customs Service, the Coast Guard and the Drug Enforcement Administration “fell far short of what is needed to substantially reduce the flow of drugs into the country.”

The subcommittee investigators were particularly harsh in their assessment of the drug fight in the agency’s Western region, one of six. Some federal officials believe that the region, which includes California, Washington and Oregon, is rapidly gaining favor among drug smugglers and money launderers who are being pushed out of the Southeast. A resurgence of Mexican-grown marijuana also is an increasing problem, they said.

Make Due With Binoculars

In one case, the investigators said, a huge “mother ship” loaded with drugs lay off the California coast, observed by a lone customs agent equipped only with binoculars instead of radar. Eventually, the ship slipped into harbor and disgorged its load unimpeded, they said.

“Attention has been focused on the Southeast,” one investigator declared. “Meanwhile, the West has been as naked as a newborn baby.”

The Customs Service is responsible for air border interdictions and for sea interdictions up to 12 miles from shore. But, according to the investigators, the service is hardly capable of doing its job.

From San Diego to Brownsville, Tex., the service has 11 boats, two long-range turboprop airplanes, two jets and two Black Hawk helicopters, one investigator said. “The rest of their aircraft is just junk,” he added.

DeConcini complained that Bush, as the leader of the system, should “crack heads and force agencies to work together.” But he cannot do that, the senator remarked sarcastically, because he “has a lot of funerals to go to” and thus cannot make drug-fighting efforts a full-time job.

‘Risk Assessments’

Meanwhile, customs officials said they are conducting “risk assessments” to determine the extent of the smuggling threat in the West.

One Administration official said the assessments are necessary because the threat “is static and changes on a daily basis.” The subcommittee investigators said customs officials have told them they estimate that smugglers make 460 drug runs across the nation’s Southwestern border every month.

William J. Meglen, assistant regional customs commissioner for enforcement in the Pacific region, said seized cash is “the most solid indicator” that the threat is increasing. Customs officials said that in fiscal 1985, which ended Sept. 30, $26.2 million was confiscated in the Pacific region, compared to $16.6 million in fiscal 1984.