DEA wants local cops back

An agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration yesterday said the federal agency wants local enforcement officers reinstated to the joint CNMI-DEA Task Force to deal with the problem of methamphetamine or “ice” trafficking in the Commonwealth.

The CNMI government separately said it is still interested in reviving the joint task force but with certain conditions to prevent the “appalling” incident involving the task force and the search on Chinese passengers aboard an inaugural charter flight to the CNMI from happening again.

“We [DEA] can make a big difference in this community but the reality is, there are only two agents here. We can’t do it alone. We need DPS’ [Department of Public Safety] help, DPS needs our help. We need your help,” DEA senior special agent Daniel Holcomb told the Saipan Chamber of Commerce yesterday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.

He said there have been meetings with the governor and other agencies to get back the local officers pulled out from the task force last year.

Press secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said Gov. Benigno R. Fitial strongly supports the partnership with DEA to continue addressing the drug trafficking problem in the CNMI.

“The CNMI still interested in reviving the joint-CNMI-DEA Task Force in the CNMI,” he said. “However, the CNMI still needs to be sure that there will never be a repeat of the appalling incident that led to the unfortunate disruption of the Task Force. Certain conditions and assurances first have to be met. We need to be confident about our working relationship with the DEA.”

The governor pulled out police and customs officers from the task force after local companies protested the DEA’s actions that subjected passengers of a Shanghai Airlines flight to intensive body searches in October.

Since the pullout, the task force has had only two members: Holcomb and senior special agent Michael Byerley.

Besides lack of task force members, DEA also has issue with language barrier. In the Oct. 4 incident, for example, task force members were not able to properly communicate with the Chinese passengers searched because of language issues.

Holcomb said the meth problem in the CNMI is at an epidemic level “and it’s been growing ever worse since 1995.”

“The [meth] quantities here are big enough to destroy this community but small enough to conceal them almost anywhere and from enforcement standpoint, that’s a great challenge,” he told Chamber members.

DEA’s current focus is targeting organized crime groups responsible for meth trafficking in the CNMI, and weeding out public corruption.

Holcomb said most meth are brought to the CNMI by Chinese organized crime groups, which are also doing “human trafficking, weapon smuggling and technology transfer to terrorist organizations.”

He added that no meth laboratories have been found “yet” in the CNMI, unlike Guam where laboratories are operating. But the street cost of meth in Guam is higher than on Saipan. He said a gram of meth is sold for about $400 on Saipan.

The DEA earlier assured the CNMI government that it is looking into the alleged mistreatment of 147 Chinese tourists, who were made to go through a drug search upon arriving at Saipan International Airport in October.