Drug Control: DEA's Strategies and Operations in the 1990s (Testimony,
07/29/1999, GAO/T-GGD-99-149).

High demand for illegal drugs in the United States has persisted
throughout the 1990s, as has the flow of illegal drugs into this
country. The cost of illegal drug use in this country has been pegged at
about $110 billion annually, including lost jobs and productivity,
health problems, and economic hardships to families. Also, many violent
crimes are drug related. Funding for federal drug control efforts has
risen by nearly 50 percent during the 1990s, reaching about $18 billion
in fiscal year 1999. Funding for the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) nearly doubled, from $806 million in 1990 to about $1.5 billion in
1999. DEA staff grew from 6,000 in 1990 to 8,400 in 1998. During the
1990s, DEA strengthened many of its operations. The agency began to work
more closely with state and local law enforcement and help combat
drug-related violent crime in local communities. DEA intercepted the
communications of drug trafficking groups at home and abroad in order to
target their leaders and dismantle their operations. DEA began to
participate in two interagency programs to investigate major drug
trafficking groups in Latin America and Asia. DEA also changed its
foreign operations by screening and training special foreign policy
units to combat drug trafficking in key foreign countries. DEA has major
responsibilities under the Office of National Drug Control Policy's
national drug control strategy for reducing the drug supply. However,
DEA has yet to develop measurable performance targets for its programs
and initiatives that are consistent with those adopted for the national
strategy. Consequently, it is difficult to assess how successful DEA's
programs have been in reducing the supply of illegal drugs into the
United States. This testimony summarizes the July 1999 report,
GAO/GGD-99-108.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-GGD-99-149
     TITLE:  Drug Control: DEA's Strategies and Operations in the 1990s
      DATE:  07/29/1999
   SUBJECT:  Drug trafficking
	     International relations
	     Narcotics
	     Performance measures
	     Strategic planning
	     Law enforcement
	     Federal/state relations
	     Interagency relations
	     Organized crime
	     National policies
IDENTIFIER:  National Drug Control Strategy
	     DEA Mobile Enforcement Team Program
	     DOJ Violent Crime Reduction Program
	     DEA Kingpin Strategy
	     DEA Linear Approach Program
	     DEA Linkage Approach Program
	     DEA State and Local Task Force Program
	     DOJ Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program

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    United States General Accounting Office GAO
    Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Crime Committee on the
    Judiciary House of Representatives For Release on Delivery
    Expected at 9:30 a.m. EDT              DRUG CONTROL on Thursday
    July 29, 1999              DEA's Strategies and Operations in the
    1990s Statement of Norman J. Rabkin Director, Administration of
    Justice Issues General Government Division GAO/T-GGD-99-149
    Statement Drug Control: DEA's Strategies and Operations in the
    1990s Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: I am pleased
    to be here today to discuss the results of our recently completed
    comprehensive review of the Drug Enforcement Administration's
    (DEA) strategies and operations in the 1990s. We undertook this
    work at the request of this Subcommittee and the Senate Caucus on
    International Narcotics Control. As agreed with the Subcommittee
    and the Caucus, we focused our work primarily on determining (1)
    what major enforcement strategies, programs, initiatives, and
    approaches DEA has implemented in the 1990s to carry out its
    mission; and (2) whether DEA's strategic goals and objectives,
    programs and initiatives, and performance measures are consistent
    with the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) National
    Drug Control Strategy. Also, as requested, we reviewed how DEA
    determined its fiscal year 1998 staffing needs and allocated the
    additional staff. My statement is based on and will outline the
    detailed results of our July 21, 1999 report1 (which I would now
    like to submit for the record). Overall, we determined that,
    consistent with its mission, DEA enhanced or changed important
    aspects of its operations during the 1990s, including expanding
    its focus to target local drug dealers in addition to major drug
    trafficking organizations. In this regard: *  DEA expanded its
    domestic enforcement operations to work more with state and local
    law enforcement agencies and help combat drug-related violence in
    local communities. *  DEA implemented an investigative approach
    focusing on intercepting the communications of major drug
    traffickers. *  DEA enhanced its foreign operations by (1)
    participating in two interagency programs to target major drug
    trafficking organizations in Latin America and Asia and (2)
    screening and training special foreign police units to combat drug
    trafficking in certain key foreign countries. We also determined
    that DEA's strategic goals and objectives, and enhanced programs
    and initiatives, in the 1990s were consistent with the National
    Drug Control Strategy. However, DEA has not developed measurable
    performance targets for its programs and initiatives that are
    consistent with those adopted for the National Strategy. I will
    now briefly outline the results of our work. 1 Drug Control: DEA's
    Strategies and Operations in the 1990s (GAO/GGD-99-108, July 21,
    1999). Page 1
    GAO/T-GGD-99-149 Drug Control: DEA's Strategies and Operations in
    the 1990s As you know, DEA has significant responsibilities for
    the drug supply Background    reduction portion of ONDCP's
    National Drug Control Strategy. DEA's overall mission is to
    enforce the nation's drug laws and regulations and to bring drug
    traffickers to justice. DEA is the lead agency responsible for
    enforcing the federal drug control laws and for coordinating and
    pursuing U.S. drug investigations in foreign countries. DEA's
    primary responsibilities include (1) investigating major drug
    traffickers operating at interstate and international levels and
    criminals and drug gangs who perpetrate violence in local
    communities; (2) managing a national drug intelligence system; (3)
    seizing and forfeiting traffickers' assets; (4) coordinating and
    cooperating with federal, state, and local law enforcement
    agencies on mutual drug enforcement efforts; and (5) carrying out,
    under the policy guidance of the Secretary of State and U.S.
    Ambassadors, programs associated with drug law enforcement
    counterparts in foreign countries. Funding for all federal drug
    control efforts has increased by about 49 percent, in constant
    1999 dollars, in the 1990s to the fiscal year 1999 level of about
    $18 billion. Funding for DEA almost doubled, in constant dollars,
    from about $806 million in fiscal year 1990 to about $1.5 billion
    in fiscal year 1999. The number of DEA staff increased from about
    6,000 in fiscal year 1990 to about 8,400 in fiscal year 1998.
    Nevertheless, during the 1990s, the demand for and supply of
    illegal drugs have persisted at very high levels and have
    continued to adversely affect American society. For example, on
    the basis of the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, the
    Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
    estimated that in 1997 there were 13.9 million current users2 of
    illegal drugs in the United States aged 12 and older, representing
    6.4 percent of the total population. This number has fluctuated
    somewhat but has remained fairly constant overall since 1990, as
    have the numbers of current users of cocaine and marijuana, with
    1.5 million cocaine users and 11.1 million marijuana users in
    1997. Also, a report prepared for ONDCP showed that drug users in
    the United States spent an estimated $57 billion for illegal drugs
    in 1995.3 ONDCP, in its 1999 National Drug Control Strategy, noted
    that illegal drugs cost our 2 A current user is an individual who
    consumed an illegal drug in the month prior to being interviewed.
    3 What America's Users Spend on Illegal Drugs, 1988-1995; prepared
    for the Office of National Drug Control Policy by William Rhodes,
    Stacia Langenbahn, Ryan Kling, and Paul Scheiman; September 29,
    1997. Page 2
    GAO/T-GGD-99-149 Drug Control: DEA's Strategies and Operations in
    the 1990s society approximately $110 billion annually. The
    societal costs include lost jobs and productivity, health
    problems, and economic hardships to families. In addition, many
    violent crimes are drug related, according to ONDCP. Drug
    trafficking organizations have continued to supply drug users in
    the United States despite short-term achievements by DEA and other
    law enforcement agencies in apprehending drug traffickers and
    disrupting the flow of drugs. In the 1990s, DEA pointed to many
    drug enforcement accomplishments. But, despite these
    accomplishments, national and international drug trafficking
    organizations continued to smuggle large amounts of illegal drugs,
    including cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine, into
    the United States. In addition, methamphetamine, a powerful
    stimulant that has had a devastating impact in many cities across
    the nation during the 1990s, is clandestinely produced in this
    country; and marijuana is grown here. Local gangs and individuals
    deal in these and other drugs in local communities and have caused
    violence in doing so. Since it was established in 1973, DEA's top
    priority has been to disrupt and DEA's Enforcement
    dismantle major drug trafficking organizations. During the 1990s,
    DEA Operations Reach From the broadened the focus of its
    enforcement operations. DEA now focuses on International Level to
    the       what it calls the "seamless continuum" of drug
    trafficking, with programs Local Level                      and
    initiatives directed at major regional, national, and
    international trafficking organizations; violent, street-level
    drug gangs and other local community problems; and domestically
    cultivated and manufactured illegal drugs. During the 1990s, DEA,
    primarily through its Kingpin Strategy and then its Special
    Operations Division, increased its emphasis on intercepting
    communications between top-level drug traffickers and their
    subordinates to identify and target the leaders and dismantle
    their operations. This resulted in a 183-percent increase, from
    fiscal years 1990 through 1998, in the number of electronic
    surveillance court orders requested and conducted by DEA. DEA also
    started working with other federal agencies on two programs- the
    Linear Approach and Linkage Approach Programs-to target and
    investigate major drug trafficking organizations in Latin America
    and Asia, respectively. In 1996, to improve its effectiveness in
    several key foreign countries, DEA began to screen and train
    special foreign police units. The intent of this effort is to
    improve the capabilities of foreign police and to Page 3
    GAO/T-GGD-99-149 Drug Control: DEA's Strategies and Operations in
    the 1990s build trustworthy and reliable foreign antidrug units
    with which DEA works. At the same time, DEA attempted to improve
    its effectiveness in addressing the "seamless continuum" of drug
    trafficking by giving domestic drug trafficking a higher priority,
    including focusing resources on regional and "local impact" drug
    problems. In this regard, during the 1990s, DEA devoted more
    resources to its State and Local Task Force Program. Also, in
    1995, DEA established the Mobile Enforcement Team Program to
    assist local police with violent drug gangs and other local drug
    problems. DEA's strategic goals and objectives and its enhanced
    programs and DEA Has Not Yet                    initiatives in the
    1990s have been consistent with the National Drug Developed
    Performance              Control Strategy. Both the National
    Strategy and DEA hope to reduce the Targets Consistent With the
    illegal drug supply and drug-related crime and violence by
    disrupting and National Strategy                  dismantling
    domestic and international drug trafficking organizations. The
    principal objectives in the National Drug Control Strategy
    relating to DEA are: *  combat drug-related violence, disrupt
    criminal organizations, and arrest the leaders of illegal drug
    syndicates; and *  disrupt and dismantle major international drug
    trafficking organizations and arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate
    their leaders. For domestic drug trafficking organizations, the
    National Strategy calls for increasing by 5 points the percentage
    of drug trafficking organizations disrupted or dismantled by 2002
    as measured against the percentage recorded in the base year using
    a prioritized list of designated targets. It calls for at least a
    10 percentage point increase above the base year by 2007. For
    international drug trafficking organizations, the National
    Strategy calls for achieving by 2002 a 50 percent success rate in
    the number of organizations disrupted or dismantled as measured
    against a designated target list established in the base year. The
    Strategy also calls for increasing the success rate to 100 percent
    by 2007 as measured against the base year list. According to ONDCP
    and DEA, neither the domestic nor international designated target
    lists referred to above have been developed. Unlike the National
    Strategy, DEA's performance plans for fiscal years 1999 and 2000
    do not contain performance targets for assessing its Page 4
    GAO/T-GGD-99-149 Drug Control: DEA's Strategies and Operations in
    the 1990s progress in disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking
    organizations. DEA has no annual, mid-, or long-range measurable
    performance targets for disrupting and dismantling drug
    trafficking organizations. In commenting on a draft of our report,
    DEA indicated that (1) it had developed preliminary performance
    targets for inclusion in its fiscal year 2001 budget submission to
    the Department of Justice (DOJ) and (2) it could not finalize its
    targets and measures until the responsible federal agencies
    complete a designated targeted list of international drug
    trafficking organizations, as called for in the National Strategy.
    Nevertheless, in the absence of finalized performance targets, it
    is difficult to quantitatively assess DEA's overall effectiveness
    in achieving its strategic goals. In order to carry out its
    mission and operations during the 1990s, including DEA's Fiscal
    Year 1998           the programs and initiatives I have mentioned,
    DEA received funds to staff Staffing Needs                   its
    operations through various sources, including its annual
    appropriations Determination Process Was salaries and expenses
    budget, as well as DOJ's Violent Crime Reduction Consistent with
    Federal          Program4 and other reimbursable programs, such as
    the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program. Our
    report discusses in detail the Processes and Procedures
    process used in fiscal year 1998 to determine and allocate
    additional DEA positions provided through its salaries and
    expenses budget. DEA and DOJ officials considered this process to
    be generally typical of the process DEA has used in other years.
    The fiscal year 1998 DEA staffing needs determination process was
    systematically linked to its budget formulation process. It was
    typical of and consistent with the processes and procedures that
    federal agencies are expected to follow, according to federal laws
    and regulations and procedures promulgated by the Office of
    Management and Budget (OMB). Moreover, the process considered
    factors related to DEA's ability to carry out its mission,
    including emerging drug abuse and trafficking trends, staffing
    requests from the field, the DEA Administrator's vision statement,
    and the Special Agent in Charge's vision statement from each field
    office. DEA's fiscal year 1998 budget submission to DOJ estimated
    the need for a total of 989 new positions, including 399 special
    agent positions. As a result of reviews by DOJ, OMB, and ONDCP and
    consideration of the resources provided in DEA's fiscal year 1997
    appropriation,5 the President's fiscal year 1998 budget, which was
    submitted to Congress in February 4 The Violent Crime Reduction
    Program was established by the Violent Crime Control and Law
    Enforcement Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-322, as amended). 5 See
    Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and
    Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 1997, P.L. 104-208 and H.R.
    Conf. Rep. No. 104-863 (1996). Page 5
    GAO/T-GGD-99-149 Drug Control: DEA's Strategies and Operations in
    the 1990s 1997, requested a total of 345 new positions for DEA,
    including 168 special agent positions. In its fiscal year 1998 DEA
    appropriation, Congress provided 531 additional positions, of
    which 240 were special agent positions, with guidance as to how
    the positions were to be allocated. Then, DEA senior management
    systematically determined the allocation of the additional staff
    to headquarters and field offices, taking into consideration
    congressional guidance and such factors as field office requests.
    Mr. Chairman, let me close by emphasizing that although DEA's
    strategic Conclusions and    goals and objectives, as well as its
    enhanced programs and initiatives, are Recommendation
    consistent with the National Drug Control Strategy, DEA has not
    developed measurable performance targets for disrupting and
    dismantling drug trafficking organizations. Without such
    performance targets, it is difficult for DEA, the Department of
    Justice, Congress, and the public to quantitatively assess (1) how
    effective DEA has been in using resources provided by Congress to
    achieve its strategic goals and (2) the extent to which DEA's
    programs and initiatives in the 1990s have contributed to reducing
    the illegal drug supply. Measurable performance targets would also
    help in determining what DEA resources, including staff, are
    needed and how resources should be allocated and used to produce
    the expected results of DEA's strategies, goals, programs, and
    initiatives. In this regard, our report recommended that the
    Attorney General direct the DEA Administrator to work closely with
    DOJ and ONDCP to develop measurable DEA performance targets for
    disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking organizations
    consistent with the performance targets in the National Drug
    Control Strategy. This concludes my prepared statement, Mr.
    Chairman. I would be pleased to answer any questions. Contact and
    Acknowledgment For further information regarding this testimony,
    please contact Norman J. Rabkin at (202) 512-8777. Individuals
    making key contributions to this testimony included Daniel C.
    Harris, Ronald G. Viereck, Samuel A. Caldrone, Lemuel N. Jackson,
    and Barbara A. Stolz. Page 6
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