Hemispheric Law Officials Urge United Front in War on Drugs

Law enforcement officials from 13 Western Hemisphere nations, including some of the world’s leading producers of cocaine and marijuana, ended a two-day meeting Friday by calling for a common front against drug traffickers.

Atty. Gen. Sergia Garcia Ramirez of Mexico characterized the talks at this resort, 385 miles northwest of Mexico City, as “extraordinarily useful and positive.”

Delegates to the conference, including Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III of the United States, issued a concluding document, stressing the goal of a coordinated, international fight against the narcotics trade.

“In this meeting, we carried out a broad examination of narcotics trafficking and drug addiction in the (Western Hemisphere) . . . to better understand the characteristics of the drug trade and to strengthen domestic and international means of combatting it,” the document said.

‘Pertinent Procedures’

Without going into details, the document said that “pertinent procedures” were worked out to deal with the problem.

Meese and the rest of the U.S. delegation left Puerto Vallarta on Friday morning. On Thursday, the U.S. law enforcement leader hinted that the United States might be interested in sending troops and weapons to Latin American and Caribbean nations to help governments find and destroy drug crops.

He described crop-eradication and crop-substitution programs as “ultimately the way we are going to have to go” to cope with major cocaine production.

The United States and Bolivia have been cooperating on a campaign in that Andean nation to destroy cocaine processing plants.