October 25, 1999
Web posted at: 10:07 p.m. EDT (0207 GMT)

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From Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman

HAVANA (CNN) -- The same 4,200 keys that two centuries ago made the Cuban archipelago a paradise for pirates give cover today to drug traffickers.

Both Cuban and U.S. government officials say Cuba is increasingly used as a way station by narcotics traffickers to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.

European countries have been cooperating with the Cubans to stop the drug trade, and Cuban officials have offered to cooperate with the Americans as well. But domestic politics in the United States have stymied that effort.

VIDEO An explanation of Cuba's role in the fight against drug smuggling, by CNN's Lucia Newman. Windows Media 28K 80K     MESSAGE BOARD US/Cuba relations

Conservative Republicans, such as Sen. Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina), and Cuban-American political leaders have repeatedly blocked efforts to increase cooperation. They believe that Cuban officials are accomplices in the drug trade and shouldn't get access to U.S. intelligence.

However, the Clinton administration's drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, says he sees no evidence of Cuban government involvement in drug running.

"It's my own view that at the senior levels of their government, they are apparently willing to confront those drug criminals," he says.

Cuba has passed new laws against drug trafficking that are among the toughest in the region, including possible death sentences for smugglers. Cuban President Fidel Castro has made several private and public offers this year to work with the United States to combat the drug trade.

"It's nonsense, absolute nonsense, that the United States refuses to have a drug interdiction agreement for fear of the raving and ranting of a group of people in Miami, even though we're willing to do it in exchange for nothing," Castro says.

With just 40 patrol boats to cover more than 3,000 miles (more than 4,800 kilometers) of coastline, Cuban law enforcement simply can't keep up with the smugglers.

Low-flying planes drop up to four tons of drugs a month, Picked up by speedboats from Jamaica and the Bahamas, the shipments race north to the United States.

At Havana's airport, customs officials have beefed up efforts to stop smugglers posing as tourists traveling from South America to Europe.

Ten years ago, fewer than 200,000 people visited Cuba each year. Today, the number is nearly 2 million, making Cuba far more tempting for drug traffickers.

The British government has helped finance and train Cuban customs officials in the latest detection techniques. The French have helped train drug-sniffing dogs.

And Cuba has drug interdiction accords with 24 countries other than the United States. But Cuban Justice Minister Roberto Diaz Sotolongo says the bottom line is that there cannot be an effective fight against drugs in the Caribbean without Cuba.

"In the battle against narcotics, we must put aside our differences because there is a bigger duty on the part of all governments to free our people of the scourge of drug trafficking," he says.

While drug use in Cuba is low compared to other nations in the hemisphere, narcotics are creeping in, spurring the Cuban government's desire to work even with old enemies in Washington.