Ex-DEA Chief Praises Aid From Military, Warns of Renewed Threat From Heroin : Drugs: John Lawn will become an executive of the N.Y. Yankees. He doubts Bush will pick another FBI agent to head agency.

Only two years ago, a Navy commander who had done a bang-up job of training Bolivian naval officers to run anti-drug river patrols turned down an offer to extend his six-month tour with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

As a career move, “it would have been to his detriment to continue to assist us,” recalled DEA Administrator John C. Lawn, who was so pleased with the commander’s performance that he had personally urged him to extend his temporary assignment.

Today, however, a stint with the DEA, as part of the military’s expanded participation in federal anti-drug efforts, would be viewed as career-enhancing instead of damaging, Lawn said. Although the military has had to adjust to its role in the drug fight, the joint effort is starting to mesh, he said.

Lawn, in an interview this week marking his career switch from federal drug enforcement chief to New York Yankees executive, discussed the military campaign and his “sense” that President Bush will break with precedent by not turning to the FBI to find Lawn’s successor.

In addition, he underscored the renewed threat to the United States of heroin smuggling, rejecting suggestions by critics that the DEA’s warnings about heroin were motivated by the desire for a bigger budget.

Lawn’s praise of military cooperation was voiced a week after the Pentagon announced unprecedented drug-interdiction initiatives, including an increase in the number of military personnel assigned to full-time details with other federal agencies involved in the anti-drug effort.

Only 40 U.S. military personnel served with drug-fighting units of the Justice and Commerce departments in 1989, but about 275 will be assigned to those agencies this year.

More significant than those numbers, however, is a change of attitude that Lawn said stemmed from the emphasis placed on anti-drug work by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.

“Now, it’s a two-year assignment and it’s career-enhancing,” Lawn said. As a result, he said, it is in an officer’s “best interest to seek out such an assignment.”

To be sure, the expanded role of the military in anti-drug campaigns has caused some headaches. The Navy’s plan to station a drug-interdicting armada off the coast of Colombia was denounced by Latin American leaders and was shelved.

“The military are take-charge people,” Lawn said, “so there was a learning curve and sensitivity training that the military and intelligence communities had to go through.”

Military officials “had to recognize that sovereignty issues are most important and that the role of the DEA is not unilateral enforcement action, but one of working with local counterparts” overseas, he said.

“My guess is that the military planners remembered the difficulties of Southeast Asia (Vietnam) and felt that, if given the mission, they should carry it out without guidance from other components that had been involved,” Lawn continued. “That period of sensitivity training is over, and the military and intelligence communities clearly understand the role they will be playing.”

Lawn said that he did not expect the President to turn to the FBI when choosing the next DEA chief, although both Lawn and his predecessor, Francis (Bud) Mullen, were veteran FBI officials before taking command of the drug agency.

“The visibility of the DEA in Congress and at the White House is now such that I believe the candidates will be individuals of substantially higher visibility than people from a domestic law enforcement environment,” Lawn said.

By moving outside the FBI to find Lawn’s replacement, Bush would underscore the independence of the DEA, which, during President Ronald Reagan’s Administration, was often regarded as a subordinate unit of the FBI.

Lawn said that he had been asked to “be available” to discuss the job’s requirements when Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh begins drawing up the list of possible nominees to recommend to Bush, a process that Lawn and a Justice Department spokesman said has not begun.

On Thursday, Thornburgh picked the DEA’s second-ranking official, Terrence Burke, to become acting administrator after Lawn officially departed on Friday. Burke, 51, has held several DEA posts and served overseas with both the drug agency and the CIA, which awarded him the Intelligence Star of Valor, the civilian equivalent of the Medal of Honor.

Lawn, who is retiring after 27 years of government service, will become vice president and chief of operations for the Yankees. He is an acquaintance of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and will handle business affairs for the team.

Staff writer Melissa Healy contributed to this story.