Speeches 2003
April 1, 2003
DEA Acting Administrator John B. Brown III at the International Drug Enforcement Conference
I am very pleased to join you at this 21 st International Drug Enforcement Conference -- and pleased as well to be with you for the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Panama.
I'd like to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation, to President Moscoso, for her strong support of international cooperation in the fight against drugs and crime. Every single agency or department in her government has worked closely and effectively with the DEA office here in Panama. The President's administration of law enforcement should be a model for all of us around the world.
I'd also like to pay tribute to the dedication of Director General Bares. Your leadership in law enforcement has been recognized time and again, most recently in your selection in 2001 as the IDEC Regional President, and then your nomination last year in Bolivia as the President of IDEC. Your selection for both positions is a recognition not only of your many accomplishments in drug enforcement, but also the contributions Of many officials in the Moscoso Administration and the Republic of Panama.
Finally, I'd like to say that the cooperative drug enforcement efforts between the Republic of Panama and the United States would not be possible without the contributions of Ambassador Watt. You appreciate just how serious drug trafficking is, and you are very supportive of the efforts of both our countries to fight it. You understand the sacrifices and the courage and the demands of police work, and we are very grateful for your thoughtful leadership and your support on the drug issue.
We at DEA consider our good relations with the Government of Panama to be of paramount importance. The first IDEC was held here in 1983. Now we are celebrating the 21st IDEC, once again in Panama.
Panama is of crucial importance in the Western Hemisphere. Its canal and highway, its vibrant economy, and its geographical location give it a strategic importance to law enforcement shared by few other countries in the world. While these distinctive features make it a desirable location for world business, they also attract the criminal underworld, as well.
The Government of Panama has been quick to respond to the threat of drug trafficking. In 2000, it adopted major legislative reforms regarding financial crimes that will allow all of us in law enforcement to keep a close watch on the flow of illegal money. In 2001, the Government of Panama and the U.S. Government signed a bilateral maritime agreement to interdict ships engaged in trafficking or terrorist activities. I might add that this agreement was signed eight months before the attack on the United States on 9/11. In an age of drugs and terrorism, this agreement is a good example of what governments can do to cooperate in the maintenance of international peace and order.
In my 31 years in drug law enforcement, I've watched the increasing sophistication of the drug traffickers. Their state-of-the-art technologies, their command-and-control systems, their growing expertise in money laundering: all of these tools have made them more and more a threat to modern societies.
But nothing has given them more potential for undermining nations than their close association with terrorist groups. This is such an important and dangerous new aspect of drug trafficking that we have devoted a whole IDEC meeting to the issue.
There's a tendency to think that the United States became interested in the connection between drugs and terrorism only after the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. were attacked. In fact, Donnie Marshall, the former DEA Administrator, testified to Congress about the issue months before 9/11. So did other federal officials.
State-supported terrorism is slowly drying up. So terrorist groups are looking for other deep pockets. It shouldn't surprise us that they have turned to drug traffickers. The worldwide illegal drug trade is about $400 billion a year. The U.S. State Department estimates that, in Colombia, the FARC and another terrorist organization, the AUC, receive $300 million a year from drug sales to finance their activities. Drug trafficking is not the terrorists' only source of funds. But it certainly is a major one. It would take a lot of bank robberies and kidnappings to come up with an amount of money that large.
The terrorist-trafficking connection is true of both sides in Colombia's civil war. One paramilitary leader, Carlos Castano, has admitted that the narcotics trade furnishes most of the financing for the paramilitaries.
You will be hearing many excellent presentations on some of the issues surrounding drugs and terrorism. So let me just make some brief remarks about it.
This is not just an issue of concern to the United States. Shortly after the 9/11 attack, the United Nations passed a resolution which condemned terrorism and noted its close connection to the drug trade. The resolution said that terrorism constituted a threat to international peace and security. I don't think anyone in this room would argue with that.
The resolution said also that the United Nations was concerned about "the close connection between international terrorism and transnational organized crime, illicit drugs, money-laundering, illegal arms trafficking, and illegal movement of nuclear, chemical, biological, and other potentially deadly materials."
When you think about it, traffickers and terrorists do have a lot in common. For example, both groups use high tech weapons and rely on violence to achieve their goals. Both groups launder money, operate safehouses, forge documents, and smuggle weapons. Smuggling has always been central to what traffickers do. It is fast becoming a major operational tactic for terrorists. When a nuclear weapon can be delivered in a suitcase, the community of interests between traffickers and terrorists becomes apparent.
The connection between traffickers and weapons of mass destruction might seem like stretching the relationship a bit. But when you consider the lengths to which some traffickers have gone to bend governments to their will, it doesn't seem so far-fetched. The profits that traffickers make gives them the money to do just about anything they want.
A few years ago, the Colombian National Police seized a half-built submarine in a warehouse outside Bogota. The submarine had a double hull with a displacement of 150 tons. A submarine of this sophistication might be found in the world's leading navies. It could have remained submerged for two weeks and smuggled ten metric tons of illicit drugs with a cruising range of 3,000 nautical miles.
When traffickers are seriously thinking about technology of this sophistication, it's clear we are dealing with a criminal conspiracy that far surpasses anything you or I confronted when we first entered the profession of law enforcement.
Back then, cooperating against gangs of criminals was not so important. Criminals didn't have the power they have now. Today cooperation is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity. It is for that reason, no doubt, that the UN Security Council Resolution goes on to emphasize "the need to enhance coordination of efforts on national, subregional, regional, and international levels in order to strengthen a global response to this serious challenge and threat to international security."
The resolution expresses the will of international public opinion. But it will be just words on paper unless it is carried out. When the Security Council Resolution also proposes exchanging information and cooperating to prevent the commission of terrorist acts, it is talking to us.
When it comes right down to it, the institution of law enforcement, you and I (us), is what stands between peace and good order on the one hand, and anarchy, violence and terror, on the other. And the application of technology to weaponry has raised the stakes for all of us.
Transnational crime calls for a transnational law enforcement. And the most important contribution that you and I can make to the fight against drugs and terrorism is intelligence sharing.
What you and I do in the coming, years will determine whether our children and their children will live in a world of violence or a world of peace. You and I, and the great law enforcement institutions we represent, have it in our power to help shape the world of the future. It is an awesome responsibility, and I know this meeting of IDEC will inspire all of us to make an ever greater commitment to cooperate in the struggle for an international community that is free of drugs and free of terror. Thank you.