Drug Enforcers Adopt a Rapid-Fire Arms Policy

Undercover narcotics officers wearing black hoods to protect their identities blazed away at bad-guy targets on a police range in Pasadena on Wednesday, using new submachine guns to demonstrate how the federal Drug Enforcement Agency hopes to combat well-armed dope dealers.

DEA officials said the submachine guns are being issued to all its agents nationwide as a response to the arms build-up of drug dealers, who frequently possess powerful assault weapons when taken into custody.

“We’re outgunned,” said DEA spokesman Ralph Lochridge.

“We’re not even at parity with this weapon,” he added “but it is a step in the right direction.”

DEA officials announced that theirs is the first police agency--national, state or local--with a plan to routinely equip all its officers with weapons capable of fully automatic fire.

About 2,800 DEA agents will receive the Colt 9-millimeter submachine guns, which can be fired either semi-automatically--one bullet for each pull of the trigger--or fully automatically--a continuous stream of fire with one squeeze of the trigger.

About 100 DEA agents in the Los Angeles area already have been armed with the new weapons, Lochridge said. All agents are expected to be issued the guns within three years.

Cmdr. William Booth, spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said there are no plans to arm the LAPD’s narcotics officers with automatic weapons.

“In the city of Los Angeles,” said Booth, “if we have the need for special weaponry to raid a place, we have specialized people for precisely that.”

He did not, however, criticize the DEA decision to issue submachine guns to its agents.

DEA officials believe the mere sight of the short black military-style assault rifles will intimidate drug dealers into surrendering peacefully.

“The display of these submachine guns during arrest situations will be a strong deterrent and will prevent potential shoot-outs,” said John Zienter, DEA agent in charge of the Los Angeles office, in a prepared statement.

The new weapons will use a military anti-terrorist bullet designed to “penetrate deeper and expand more reliably,” said Steve Jennings, firearms officer with the DEA. The bullet is not available to non-police civilians, he said.

It is not clear how the weapons--which measure about 30 inches long with the stock extended and 24 inches with it collapsed--will be carried and used by the undercover agents. DEA officials were reluctant to give details.

Zienter said the submachine gun, which was designed especially for the DEA, “is small enough to be easily concealed but with a long enough barrel to shoot accurately.”

The demonstration at the gun range also included a display of several assault weapons, some more powerful than the new DEA rifles, that were confiscated by federal agents in connection with drug cases.

Mike Dawkins of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms fired each of the confiscated guns at car doors placed in front of a dirt backstop to show how fast the weapons fired and how easily the bullets penetrated the doors, kicking up dust in the dirt behind them.