ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Dead-Letter BoxOther programs and the goals they serve. DEA also creates,manages, and supports domestic and international enforcementprograms aimed at reducing the availabilityand demand for controlled substances. Among its dozensof programs is Demand Reduction, operated by 22 specialagents at 21 domestic field divisions to educate youth andcommunities as a whole, to train law-enforcement personnel,and to encourage drug-free workplaces.Demand Reduction falls under the heading of the firstof three goals DEA established late in the twentieth century,and toward which it continued to work in the earlytwenty-first. That first goal is to educate and enable America’syouth to reject illegal drugs as well as alcohol andtobacco. Among the programs in the service of the secondgoal—to increase the safety of America’s citizensby substantially reducing drug-related crime—are theMobile Enforcement Teams, which work to dismantledrug organizations.The third goal, to break foreign and domestic drugsources of supply, places DEA in collaboration with foreigngovernments and agencies through programs suchas the Northern Border Response Force. DEA also workswith other federal agencies, including the Department ofJustice National Drug Intelligence Center. DEA intelligenceitself serves this third goal.❚ FURTHER READING:BOOKS:Levine, Michael. Deep Cover: The Inside Story of How DEAInfighting, Incompetence, and Subterfuge Lost Us theBiggest Battle of the Drug War. New York: DelacortePress, 1990.Ojeda, Auriana. Drug Trafficking. San Diego, CA: GreenhavenPress, 2002.Stutman, Robert M., and Richard Esposito. Dead on Delivery:Inside the Drug Wars, Straight from the Street. NewYork: Warner Books, 1992.PERIODICALS:Lichtblau, Eric. “White House Report Stings Drug Agencyon Abilities.” New York Times. (February 5, 2003): A16.Reddy, Anitha. “Terrorists Are Now Targets in Money-Laundering Fight.” Washington Post. (July 25, 2002): E3.Schmidt, Susan. “DEA to Bolster Presence along MexicanBorder, in Central Asia.” Washington Post. (August 10,2002): A11.ELECTRONIC:Drug Enforcement Administration. (March 13, 2003).SEE ALSOATF (United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, andFirearms)Drug Control Policy, United States Office of NationalNDIC (Department of Justice National Drug IntelligenceCenter)Dead Drop SpikeA dead drop spike is one of several types of equipment forconcealing, and protecting from the elements, materialsleft at a dead drop. The latter term refers to the site atwhich an intelligence agent leaves materials—documents,film, etc.—for a handler or intelligence agent to retrieve ata later time. The handler may in turn leave money or otheritems for the agent to subsequently retrive. Obviously, it isimportant to both parties, as well as the agency sponsoringtheir activity, that these materials be safe from detection,theft, or harm by the elements or animals. Hence theneed for the spike and similar devices.Used since the late 1960s, a dead drop spike typicallylooks like a large, fat pencil. The blunt, “eraser” end has alid that can be unscrewed, so as to insert materials andclose them up in an air- and watertight chamber. Thepointed end, or spike, makes the device easy to stick intothe ground—safe from detection by interlopers, but easyenough for the agent or handler to retrieve.Another device for making a dead drop is a wallet-likewaterproof pouch. Sewn into the lining are ball bearings,which ensure that the pouch will sink to the bottom of astream or ditch rather than float away. A “clam” dead dropis a tiny metal chamber attached to a magnet, such that itcan be attached to an inconspicuous place on a car or anyother large object with metallic parts.❚ FURTHER READING:BOOKS:Melton, H. Keith. The Ultimate Spy Book. New York: DKPublishing, 1996.ELECTRONIC:Dead Drop Spike. Central Intelligence Agency. (February1, 2003).SEE ALSODropDead-Letter BoxA dead-letter box is a covert location where messages orother items are deposited for retrieval by other intelligenceoperatives. Also called a dead drop, it is most oftenused as a means of transferring documents and messages,but can also be used to funnel equipment andmoney to agents in the field.Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security315