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 News from Around the Americas | October 2007 
New Ariz. DEA Chief Sets Sights on Mexico Cartels
 Sean Holstege - The Arizona Republic
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| | Elizabeth Kempshell is the special agent in charge of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration field office. (Jack Kurtz/The Arizona Republic) |
Arizona has a new leader in its war on drugs.
Elizabeth Kempshell, 45, becomes special agent in charge of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration field office at a critical time.
In the past year in Arizona, officials seized 1.2 million pounds of marijuana, more than in any other state. Border violence has spiked. And Mexican President Felipe Calderón's crackdown on drug cartels has expanded.
Kempshell entered the DEA after her only brother was killed.
The 23-year veteran most recently led an organized-crime task force in Houston.
"She brings experience in Texas dealing with major cartels, and there are reports that those same cartels are moving into this area," said Alonzo Peña, who worked with Kempshell in Houston before becoming special agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Phoenix.
Kempshell wants to team up with state and local agencies to crack down on Mexican drug cartels.
The new head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's office in Arizona also wants to dismantle crime syndicates from top to bottom.
Kempshell, 45, succeeds Timothy Landrum as special agent in charge. He was promoted to the field office in Los Angeles this year.
Kempshell grew up in rural Georgia and went to an all-girls college to study nursing. She turned to law enforcement when her only brother was killed by a drunken driver.
She takes office amid climbing marijuana seizures in Arizona. In 2005, Arizona surpassed Texas for the amount of marijuana seized. At best, counter-drug teams seize 10 percent of the marijuana crossing the border and far lower percentages of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
We sat down with Kempshell to find out her plans for Arizona.
Question: How does Texas compare with what you expect to see here in Arizona?
Answer: Texas has a massive amount of border to take care of, and most of the traffickers worked close to the border. . . . Here, it's a smaller area compared to Texas, and for the major organizations, their headquarters are about 200 miles into Sonora.
Q: What did that teach you?
A: It really gave me a glimpse of how the transportation of drugs into the United States has changed in the last 25 years. The Mexican traffickers are now the primary organization responsible for bringing drugs into the United States.
Q: Describe your duties.
A: I supervised what we call an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force, which included state and local agencies. What made that so unique is that it brought together all the resources under one roof, so you didn't have to call somebody and say, "Let me introduce myself."
Q: What's your top priority for Phoenix?
A: I want to focus on the major Mexican traffickers who are using Arizona as a gateway into the United States and all of North America. . . . My focus for this area is to attack those organizations, to completely disrupt and dismantle them. Not just going after and picking off one or two people at a time. I want to do significant investigations that take out the whole organization from top to bottom.
Q: What is a unique challenge to Arizona?
A: You've got organizations here that just don't stop here. They move out to California, Chicago, the East Coast and Atlanta, and that's a challenge in itself. . . . The majority of the drugs don't stay here a very long time. It comes in and it goes out.
Q: The attack in Cananea last spring, which left 25 dead, sent a sense that border violence is escalating. Is it a spasm or a trend?
A: As long as you have this area, the southwest border, being responsible for a significant portion of the drugs coming into the United States and all that money involved, you're going to see violence.
Q: What hurts cartels most? Cutting off their money supply, their guns, what?
A: They're into it for the money. And if we can take out their money, keep them from making profits on what they're selling, deny them their revenues, then we've made a big impact.
Q: What cooperation do you get and need from authorities in Mexico?
A: The relationship that the United States currently has with Mexico is unprecedented. President Calderón has demonstrated time and time again since he took office in December his commitment to go after the significant drug traffickers. The proof of that is when he extradited Osiel Cardenas (founder of Los Zetas and a Gulf cartel leader) when I was in Texas. I was part of the team that took him off of the plane. . . . When he saw us with our DEA jackets on as we stepped onto the plane, we saw him just look down and shake his head.
Q: Arizona has become the busiest marijuana-smuggling route in recent years. Does that shift reflect that more dangerous drugs are coming over the Arizona border?
A: Not with this organization here. These agents are ready to do their job. They have the right focus, and they know who the major traffickers are.
Q: From all your experience with different forms of narcotics, have you formed an opinion about which is the most dangerous?
A: Right now, what gives me the most concern is meth, because that is what is moving so rapidly across the country and the effects of the addiction are so devastating. The other one that gives me a lot of concern are kids getting pharmaceuticals over the Internet without a true doctor-patient client relationship. If you type "Vicodin no prescription required" you can get, you know, 1.4 million hits.
Q: So many drugs cross the border despite all the DEA's efforts, and only a small fraction gets stopped. How do you avoid getting frustrated?
A: Every time you take down an organization. Every time you do an undercover buy. Those are the successes that keep you coming back. |
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