N.Y. State Police Chief Is Picked to Head DEA

Calling him “street-smart, tough and an able administrator,” the Clinton Administration on Thursday nominated New York State Police Supt. Thomas A. Constantine to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.

At a ceremony at the agency’s headquarters in Virginia, Constantine, 55, said he began his career as a 20-year-old cadet living in a police barracks and worked his way up through the ranks to head the 4,800-member state police force.

“I believe that people do not have to be victims of crime. I abhor bullies and I abhor predators,” he said in explaining why he chose police work.

He added that he looks forward to heading the nation’s lead agency in the fight against the “tyranny of violence” caused by illegal drugs.

“I’ve seen a degradation caused by drugs and violence that I would never have thought possible when I started in law enforcement,” he said.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said Constantine’s selection was a testament to the way in which he “brilliantly led and administered an agency slightly larger than the DEA.” About 3,700 DEA agents are deployed in all 50 states and 53 other countries.

Constantine appears to have emerged unscathed from an evidence-tampering scandal within the New York state police force. Since 1992, three troopers have pleaded guilty to falsifying fingerprints and three others have come under investigation.

Said to be stunned by the news, Constantine called it the worst scandal to hit the state police force, and he has been credited since then with working effectively to weed out corrupt troopers.

Substituting for President Clinton, who was in Moscow for the summit, Vice President Al Gore praised Constantine as the “very best” person for the job, someone whose career has been marked by “sheer professionalism and a commitment to excellence. He’s also got heart.”

Ironically, Gore’s “reinventing government” project had suggested last summer that the Justice Department merge the DEA into the FBI. Both Gore and Reno were concerned about overlap and lack of coordination between the several agencies that deal with narcotics.