Drugs and Terrorism a Dangerous Mixture,
DEA Official tells Senate Judiciary Committee

"The War on Terror and the War on Drugs are linked," a high-ranking DEA official recently told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Thirty-nine percent of the State Department's current list of designated foreign terrorist organizations have some degree of connection with drug activities," he said.

In his May 20th testimony, Steven Casteel, Assistant DEA Administrator for Intelligence, said that "whether a group is committing terrorist acts, trafficking drugs or laundering money, the one constant to remember is that they are all forms of organized crime."

Mr. Casteel told the Committee members that three terrorist organizations in Colombia, all of them with links to the drug trade, were responsible for about 3,500 murders in 2002.

One of those organizations, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), "directly trades cocaine for weapons and in other instances funds weapons purchased with cash derived from cocaine sales," he said. It was the FARC, Mr. Casteel added, that last year launched a mortar attack on the Presidential Palace the day Colombia's new president was sworn in.

Mr. Casteel said that, according to the Colombian National Police, a second Colombian terrorist organization, the United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia (AUC), conducted 804 assassinations, 203 kidnappings, and 75 massacres with 507 victims in the first 10 months of 2000. That year, its leader, Carlos Castano, claimed that 70 percent of his paramilitary organization's money were financed from drug-related earnings.

The link between drugs and terrorism has been apparent in Southwest Asia as well, especially in Afghanistan, "Through the taxation of illicit opium production," Mr. Casteel said, "the Taliban were able to fund an infrastructure capable of supporting and protecting Usama bin Laden and the Al-Qaida organization." Last year, Afghanistan produced almost 60 percent of the world's supply of illicit opium.

"Globalization has dramatically changed not only the face of legitimate enterprise, but illegitimate enterprise as well," he said. "Criminals, by exploiting advances in technology, finance, communications, and transportation in pursuit of their illegal endeavors, have become criminal entrepreneurs. Perhaps the most alarming aspect of this 'entrepreneurial' style of crime is the intricate manner in which drugs and terrorism may be intermingled. Not only is the proliferation of illegal drugs perceived as a danger, but the proceeds from the sale of drugs provides a ready source for funding for other criminal activities, including terrorism."

DEA is one of many agencies in the United States and throughout the world that are working to dismantle narco-terrorist organizations, Mr. Casteel told the Senators. DEA maintains 79 offices in 58 countries, and works with specially trained and vetted foreign law enforcement organizations to find and eliminate drug-related terrorist groups, he said.

"Prior to September 11, 2001, the law enforcement community typically addressed drug trafficking and terrorist activities as separate issues," he said. No more. The attacks of September 11th have "heightened the visibility of DEA's mission -- one that was present even before September 11th."