A Shaky Operation Alliance

The much ballyhooed battle against drugs is off to a slow start

"We shall fight you on the land, on the sea and in the air, and we shall never surrender." With that Churchillian warning to smugglers, Deputy Commissioner Michael Lane of the U.S. Customs Service formally accepted two E- 2C Hawkeye radar planes from the U.S. Navy in San Diego. The ceremony was designed to showcase the high-tech weapons the Reagan Administration has committed to its war on illegal drugs. Making a similar pitch in Houston, Customs Commissioner William von Raab invited some 65 Texas lawmen to inspect a sophisticated new communications center for coordinating surveillance against smugglers. Alive with radar screens,...

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