U.S. DRUG AGENTS ABROAD WIELD NO REAL AUTHORITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706710012-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: March 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
` Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706710012-1
ARTICLE APPEARED
Ox PAOL
WASHINGTON POST
22 March 1985
U.S. Drug Agents Abroad Wield
No Real Authority
By Mary Thornton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Enrique Camarena Salazar, the
federal drug agent who was kid-
naped and murdered in Mexico last
month, was one of hundreds of
Drug Enforcement Administration
agents stationed in 61 cities around
the world.
But the agents have no real au-
thority abroad and serve only as
advisers to foreign law enforcement
authorities-a fact that has
hindered the DEA's investigation
into Camarena's murder.
Because of their inability to make
arrests in foreign countries, DEA
i undercover agents decided this
rules to allow agents to carry guns,
though only for self-protection.
The DEA has arrangements with
39 countries plus Hong Kong and
the Netherlands Antilles, but they
are completely voluntary, and the
Countries that
accept DEA agents
could in return send
their own drug
agents to the United
States.
ers transport c~?nr-fsBro-
duced elsewhere in Latin Am rica_
In the past, Mexican authorities
often allowed ? agents to ac-
com an them on raids of sus-
ea dru tra ickers. in the r
stages o t e Cam arena mvestiAa-
tion, agents regularly rovided in
telligenc to the M exicans and then
went along on the raids.
But after. U.S. agents started
complaining that the Mexicans
weren't acting until after suspects
escaped, that cooperation began to
vanish. And since Camarena's body
was found on March 6, along with
the body of a Mexican pilot who
sometimes flew. missions for the
DEA, cooperation has ceased.
' DEA foreign offices generally are
concentrated in areas where drugs
are illegally produced or processed.
month to try to lure three top of-
ficials of the Turks and Caicos Is-
lands to Miami. There they were
arrested in connection with a mas-
sive cocaine- and marijuana-smug-
gling scheme.
Agents generally are not allowed
to carry weapons when they work
overseas. But in.Mexico, where the
DEA has six offices, the Mexican
government recently relaxed the
host can ' impose any rules it Countries that accept DEA agents
chooses. could in return send their own drug
In Mexico, the agents' main 'job agents to-the United States, ''but
has een to prove a rote ence on .. they generally- don't because the
ru operations to authorities United States does not generally
t ere. Mexico is a major supplier of export illegal drugs. Canaodan tand
eroin and maxi'
??tates, and Mexican drug-- affi } - this country.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706710012-1