International Drug Control Hearing
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If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. /SIJ.~fo3 S. HRG. 101-591 INTERNATIONAL DRUG CONTROL HEARING BEFORE THE OOMMITTEE ON THE JI.IDIOIARX UNITED STATES aENATJR (CiNE HyNDRED FIR§YCONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON • THE CONTROL OF FOREIGN DRUG TRAFFICKING ACTIVITIES AUGUST 17, 1989 Serial No. J-101-38 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary NCJRS mIN 9 1995 ~ ACQUISITIONS • ~'J. U.s. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE • 2R-05:l WASHINGTON: 1990 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 . n r r-"'l f .. ' COMMI'ITEE ON THE JUDICIARY JOSEPH R. BIOEN, JR., Delaware, Chairman EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts STROM THURMOND, South Carolina HOWARD M. METZENBAUM, Ohio ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah DENNIS DECONCINI, Arizona ALAN K. SIMPSON, Wyoming • PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa HOWELL HEFLIN, Alabama ARLEN SPEGrER, Pennsylvania PAUL SIMON, Illinois GORDON J. HUMPHREY, New Hampshire HERBERT KOHL, Wisconsin RONALD A. KLAIJo!, Chief Counsel DIANA HUFFMAN, Staff Director JEFFREY J. PECK, General Counsel TERRY L, WOOTEN, Minority Chief Counsel and Staff Director (II) 154863 U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice This document has been reproduced exactly as received from the p~rson or organization originating it. Points of view or opinions stated in this doc.ument are thos~ of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or poh<'les of the National Institute of Justice. Permission to reproduce this ""'iJlllaiit'material has been granted by .. Public D::main u.s. Senate to the National Criminal JUstice Reference Service (NCJRS). Further reproduction outside of the NCJRS system requires permission of the ~owner. CONTENTS Page Biden, Hon. Joseph R., Jr. (Chairman) ........................................................................ 1 Thurmond, Hon. Storm................................................................................................... 3 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WITNESSES Panel consisting of: Stephen M. Duncan, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs and Coordinator of Drug Enforcement, Policy and Support, U.S. Department of Defense; and Gen. Alfred M. Gray, Jr., Commandant of the Marine Corps and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff................................. 6 Mermelstein, Max, former drug trafficker ........................................................ ......... 42 Panel consisting of: Richard D. Gregorie, former Chief Assistant U.S. Attor- ney, Miami, FL; Robert W. Merkle, former U.S. Attorney, Tampa, FL; and Dr. Norman A. Bailey, former National Security Council senior staff member ................................................................................ ,......................................... 67 ALPHABETICAL LIST AND SUBMITTED MATERIAL Bailey, Norman A.: Testimony...................................................................................... 101 Biden, Chairman Joseph R., Jr.: Letter from the Department of State, re • Richard Gregorie's statement about actions of Ambassador Otto Reich .......... 121 Duncan, Stephen M.: Testimony ........................................................................... ,...................... .......... ..... 6 Prepared statement ....................................................... ......................................... 9 Gray, A.M., Jr.: Testimony .................................................................................................................. 28 Prepared statement ................................................................................................. 11 Gregorie, Richard D.: Testimony ................................. ................................................................................. 67 Prepared statement ................................................................................................. 73 Merkle, Robert W.: Testimony ...................................................................................... ............................ 83 Prepared statement ................................................................................................. 86 Mermelstein, Max: Testimony ....................................................................................... 42 (III) " • INTERNA'fIONAL DRUG CONTROL THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 1989 • u.s. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15 a.m., in room SD-226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., chairman of the committee, presiding. Present: Senators Biden and Thurmond. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. I thank the distinguished witness, whom I will soon introduce, for coming. I have an opening statement that I'd like to make, if I may. Today's proceeding is the 11th hearing on the drug issue that this committee has conducted this year-actually, it is the 11th • hearing I have conducted in my capacity as chairman of this com mittee and as chairman of the International Task Force on Drugs-and the 2d in a series of five hearings the Judiciary Com mittee is conducting in the 5 weeks preceding the announcement of Director Bennett's first drug control strategy, something we are looking forward to. I understand the President, to his great credit in my view, has taken the issue so seriously that he is going to come back on September 5 and announce that strategy to the Nation.. I might add, that is the very reason why we wrote the law in the first instance. I am confident that we can make some progress on this issue, and the President is obviously equally as confident. Our topic today, though, is the control of foreign drug trafficking activities. Drug cartels are the No.1 foreign threat, in my view, to our national security. While these cartels may not be the cause of our drug problem, they certainly are the principal exploiters of that problem. They unquestionably supply nearly 100 percent of the two most dangerous drugs on the street-cocaine and heroin· although I might note pa:renthetically, our entrepreneurial chem ists are now deciding that -they have the ability to provide and • produce both of those drug synthetically, and we may be facing a similar problem domestically. But at this point, drug cartels supply virtually 100 percent of the cocaine and heroin that is consumed in this country. U.S. efforts to battle these cartels have been somewhat chaotic, clumsy, and often counterproductive-and I say that not as an in dictment of this administration or the last administration or the Democratic administration before that. We have had little success in any administration. • (1) 2 We have been inconsistent in our policy in crop eradication-and again, when I say "we," I am including the Congress in this so no one thinks that I am looking for scapegoats. This is the Congress as well as the administrations in the past. We have stumbled in our handling of foreign governments that have been corrupted by drug traffickers, and we have wavered in setting a proper role and mission for the military in that effort. And perhaps most sadly of all, we have often allowed the so called war on drugs to become a war among drug agencies. Our en forcement and interdiction efforts have been plagued by bureau • cratic turf battles and petty squabbling among the agencies that are involved in this matter. Hopefully, that is about to come to an end, now that we have a Cabinet-level drug officer. My purpose today is not to offer my own plan for battling these foreign cartels or to resolve these agency turf battles, although I have ideas on this score as, unfortunately, many of the members of the administration have had to hear, some of which I have set out in the past few weeks. And I will stand by my pledge to welcome and let Dr. Bennett have the first chance to use the office we have created for him to set out a comprehensive and coordinated U.S . strategy in this area. So our goal today is not to suggest what such a strategy should be, or to evaluate Dr. Bennett's proposal based on news reports about the draft plan, or to seek from the Secretary or the General • what they know of their role in the new drug plan. Our purpose, instead, is to look in an overview fashion at what this Nation has done recently to fight drug cartels, to reinforce or call into question conclusions based on earlier hearings as to what works and what does not work, and to identify where we have been successful and where we have failed. By completing this record now, we can quickly and accurately assess whatever proposals the President will make next month baf~d on solid background developed over time and through careful stutiy. We have before us today witnesses who can be most helpful in this regard. Our first panel is composed of two distinguished gentlemen from the Pentagon-Stephen Duncan, Assistant Secretary of Defense, who is coordinating the Pentagon's antidrug strategy and recently has been put in that position, and from what I hear, is doing a heck of a job, and Gen. Alfred Gray, Commandant of the Marine Corps and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And, as I said to him earlier, not only would I not want to meet him on the battle field, I would not want to meet him in the courtroom. He is. a man of incredible integrity and is held in great respect here in the U.s. • Seaate. They can tell us what the military has been doing in this area and offer insights about what has or has not been successful. Our next witness