Drug Hearings Won’t Open in L.A. : Narcotics control: Unsettled law enforcement situation cited as U.S. quietly scraps plans.

Federal drug czar Bob Martinez has quietly scrapped plans to open hearings on the national drug strategy in Los Angeles because law enforcement there is “in a period of retrenchment,” sources familiar with the plans said Thursday.

The sources said Martinez’s advance team advised him that charges of police brutality and racism made against the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff’s departments have put law enforcement on the defensive and that the focus of drug hearings could be overshadowed by the controversy.

Martinez had tentatively scheduled Los Angeles for a hearing next Wednesday to gather information for recommendations he will make to President Bush on anti-drug strategy. On Sept. 5, he announced plans for hearings around the United States to learn what people outside Washington were doing in the drug battle, and aides said Los Angeles was to be the first stop.

Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief William Booth said the reason he was given for calling off the hearings was that Martinez “was going to do something with the President” that day.

Booth said a three-member advance team for the drug czar recently met with him and top narcotics officials to see what could be developed at the hearings.

“Retrenchment was not a reason given to us,” Booth said in an interview. “As a matter of fact, some appreciation was expressed” for anti-drug efforts by the Police Department, including the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, which has been adopted by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said he could find no one there who knew anything about the hearings.

Benjamin F. Banta IV, Martinez’s chief spokesman, would not comment on the reasons for shifting the hearing from Los Angeles, but did note that the first hearing now may be held in Seattle on Oct. 9.

However, other sources, who declined to be identified, said Martinez still may go to Los Angeles in October, but for a speech, not a hearing. His purpose would be “to make a presence and bolster the morale of the law enforcement community,” one source said.

Later in October, Martinez will embark on a presidential mission to several European countries for “fact-gathering” and to line up support for assisting the U.S. Andean strategy that focuses on the coca-growing and processing nations of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru.

Banta said he could not identify the countries “for security reasons,” but noted that Martinez would be meeting with prime ministers and cabinet officials in charge of law enforcement and drug-related matters.

He said Martinez planned to share intelligence with the foreign officials on the cocaine crisis, which is beginning to hit Europe, and their more severe problem with heroin.