Crashing on Cocaine

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with drug profits. Prosecutors must go through a distinct and scrupulous legal process to prove that the gains were specifically illgotten. Says Miami U.S. Attorney Stanley Marcus: "It takes a lot—I mean a lot—to convince a federal judge that $10 million in someone's personal bank account should be taken away from him." Nonetheless, the DEA and other federal agencies last year managed to seize about $100 million in cash, $40 million worth of aircraft, boats and cars, and $20 million in real estate. Local police also seem to get a special kick from seeing cocaine merchants stripped of their fancy possessions. Fort Lauderdale, Fla., police department ended last year with a $2.5 million surplus thanks to its expropriated share of local dealers' loot. Some cocaine tycoons are prosperous enough to shrug off the loss of a swank beach house or a DC-3 (fitted out with extra fuel tanks for long intercontinental coke flights) as business overhead. Still, says DEA Agent William Schnepper: "It's what hurts them the most. Not only do they go to prison, but they come out with no treasure socked away."

Given that bounty-hunting enthusiasm, the new federal task forces, modeled on the feds' year-old South Florida unit, could pay for themselves. The task forces in each of twelve cities* might typically include four prosecutors, at least six agents from the FBI, six more from the DEA, three from the IRS and two from Customs. Until last year, the FBI steered clear of drug cases, largely because J. Edgar Hoover did not want his agents tempted by narcotics cash. But now 600 FBI agents are working on 1,100 drug investigations, and the bureau already has 326 convictions to its credit.

One of the weaknesses of the Government's approach is the tendency of the agencies involved to squabble over prerogatives and credit. Communication is sometimes only intermittent. The task will be to develop smooth relationships between, say, the rough-and-ready DEA (one in 50 agents was shot at in 1981), which specializes in street stakeouts and gritty undercover work, and the green-eyeshade technocrats at the IRS, who delve into the esoteric evidence of drug peddlers' financial crimes. "Any prosecutor," says U.S. Attorney Walsh, "can tell you horror stories about information they didn't have because it was in the hands of another agency." Says U.S. Attorney Daniel Hedges, head of Houston's task force: "One of my jobs will be to serve as a referee in the turf rights."

The federal authorities are eager to catch bona fide kingpins. "We're not going after the Mexicans standing on the street corner any more," says Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Markley in Chicago. "We're after the big financiers, because they have the direct routes to the main traffickers." Agrees U.S. Attorney Marcus: "The money trail can lead you to the top. A lot of major dealers do not touch the dope, but they do touch the money. It may be easier to catch them on the money than the dope." Criminal lawyers, naturally, are skeptical, even contemptuous. "They always say they are going after the financial side," says Houston Attorney Charles Szekely, "but they don't. They find anybody they think they can convict."

Experienced drug police are inclined to believe that their efforts against