Should Drug, Terror Wars Target Kingpins?

Sept. 29, 2002 — -- In the war on drugs, as in the one against terror, officials say any victory must be measured against the Hydra effect: That is, cut off the head of one monster, and another one takes its place.

Osama bin Laden may be dead or alive, yet there's no question his al Qaeda followers remain armed and dangerous.

The same appears to be true of Mexico's massive Arellano Felix cocaine cartel, said to supply 40 percent of the cocaine that comes into the United States. Although authorities arrested the cartel's alleged leader, Benjamin Arellano Felix, in March — following the February shooting death of his brother, Ramon — the U.S. street price of cocaine appears unchanged. That suggests the cartel continues to operate.

And yet, although they may not necessarily be decisive blows, taking out the head of a drug or terrorist organization represents a major victory in either type of war, says a former top U.S. law enforcement official. It's just that in either event, the wars do not necessarily end there.

In drug organizations, "killing the heads is tremendously important," said Jonathan Winer, the Clinton administration's deputy assistant secretary of state for law enforcement, "because the heads have corrupt relationships with lots of other people — people in the transportation side, people in the money side and lots of people in government. You kill them, all those relationships get disrupted. And nobody knows who they can trust in the criminal world.

"That has a real impact both in the movement of the drugs and on the political problems associated with corruption, wherever the drug organization has corrupted the officials," Winer told Chris Bury of ABCNEWS' Nightline.

Killing terror leaders also makes a difference, though "you have very dangerous cells left," Winer said. "But the cells, although they're very dangerous, are not as dangerous as the organization was prior to it being disrupted."

Still, with either type of organization, the campaign cannot end once the leaders are taken out. Authorities also must attack the financing of the organizations, plus win slightly differing wars against different mindsets.

"There's one important difference and that important difference is ideology," Winer said. "The terrorists are fed by belief, and the drug traffickers are just fed by money and lifestyle. So you have to go after the belief system for the terrorists as well."

To ultimately win the drug war, authorities will have to strike at the demand side in the U.S. population, perhaps with treatment programs and public information campaigns, Winer said.

Terrorism also has consumers, he added. They are the people who engage in terror because they believe terrorism is the answer to their problems.

"As long as you have true believers, you've got a tremendous risk," he said. "You absolutely have to kill the ideology, the thing that they believe in. And we've been able to do that with other terrorist organizations over time, but it takes time."

ABCNEWS' Michael S. James and Chris Bury contributed to this report.