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    Administrations' approaches have varied: Faced with the sudden
explosion of crack cocaine in the mid-1980s, the Bush administration
attempted with mixed success to interdict drugs at the border, while the
Clinton administration has focused on reducing production in Latin
America and Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, the DEA, FBI and ATF have
developed sophisticated strategies to attack drug kingpins and
money-laundering networks.
    These strategies have produced individual successes that the
agencies celebrate. What they have not produced, critics point out, is
an overall reduction in drug supplies.
    "You could calI it a disaggregation of success," one veteran federal
analyst says. "When you get Peru to eradicate 18 percent of its coca
crop, for example, you read success. But then you look at total
production worldwide and find no net reduction. Ifs a treadmill - we
keep moving, but in the end we make no progress."
    For some federal agencies, Drug War Inc. has been an irresistable
growth opportunity. When William von Raab, an international trade lawyer
with strong conservative Republican credentials, became the Customs
Service Service commissioner in 1982, he set out to get a piece of the
action. "I knew nothing about my new job, which made me appear to be
fearless when in fact I was naive," he recalls.
    VON RAAB GOT HIS BAPTISM BY FIRE IN IN NEW YORK City's drug war that
February when federal agents seized 115 pounds of heroin smuggled in
Italian espresso machines. Because he happened to be in New York at the
time and was the highest-ranking official on the scene, von Raab
presided over the press conference that followed. The next day he and
the espresso machines were on the front page of "be New York Times.
"Boom! All of a sudden customs was back In business," he says.
    Under von Raab, the agency's personnel roster rose from  12,000 to
18,000; the number of enforcement agents rose nearly sixfold from 600 to
3,500. A Customs Service money laundering investigation in Florida first
uncovered major fraud at the Bank of Credit and Commerce International,
and a lone customs agent played a key role in making the case against
Cali drug cartel kingpins.
    But perhaps von Raab's most dramatic achievement was the building of
a full-scale Customs Service air wing. In less than a decade, he and his
successor more than doubled the force to 133 aircraft. Customs purchased
sophisticated radar-equipped aircraft and developed a system to
identify, track, intercept and apprehend drug smugglers. The air and
marine interdiction budget rose from $27 million in 1981 to $278 million
at its height in 1990, and the staff grew from 153 to 960.
    When aircraft coverage still left gaps in the interdiction web,
customs developed a network of tethered radar balloons known as
aerostats. The balloons were costly to buy and maintain - each cost
between $12 million and $23 million - but the GAO, found no conclusive
evidence that the aerostats reduced smuggling.
    Ultimately, customs officials contend, the massive effort cut air
shipments of drugs by 75 percent and forced smuggling networks to shift
to more complicated, less reliable and more expensive modes pf
transport. Still, they concede, the net amount of drugs entering the
United States remained the same.
    Von Raab built the Customs Service's drug war through the support of
friends on Capitol Hill, such as Democratic Rep. Glenn English of
Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, both of whom
have, since left office, and Republican Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New
Mexico. Congress was far more inclined, to fund law-enforcement measures
than drug treatment programs. It allowed lawmakers to be tough on an
issue of deep concern to their constituents; it also provided jobs in
many districts.
    "Congress was frustrated and wanted results, von Raab recalls. "And
customs, had the ability to genrate a lot of chits - open up on a border
station here or whereever. We converted those chits into a lot of good
will."
    Customs was not alone. Although federal agencies are supposed to let
their department heads speak for them on Capitol Hill, many have
dispatched their own lobbyists to the halls and subcommittee rooms to
secure their share of the ever-expanding budget.
    During his 1984 reelection campaign, Reagan hammered congressional
Democtats for allegedly stalling on his omnibus crime bill, which
included stringent new drug trafficking penalties. After that, Democrats
pledged never to be out flanked again.
    "Fundamentally, people on the Hill knew these were political
exercises," says Eric E. Sterling, former Democratic counsel to the
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