The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is in the process of hiring a company to assist it in coordinating the exchange of information about criminal suspects and terrorists. After reading this AP article, we'd say it's something desperately needed:

A man implicated two decades ago in a Bahamian drug smuggling ring has been hired to help create a 13-state anti-terrorism network, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Hank Asher is the founder of Seisint Inc., an information technology company with a $1.6 million contract with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to work on a pilot program for the Matrix network, through which sensitive information on terrorism and other crime suspects would be exchanged.

The Boca Raton millionaire, a member of Seisint's board of directors, friend of recently retired FDLE director James ''Tim'' Moore and a major political contributor, was never charged with drug smuggling. He served as an informant and witness in several trials, and was identified by other FDLE informants as someone who provided police protection for smuggling operations, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

Asher's first company, DBT Online Inc., bought him out for $147 million in 1999 after the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration suspended its contracts over Asher's past and concerns that the company could potentially monitor targets of investigations, the Times reported.

Interim FDLE head Daryl McLaughlin called Friday for a complete assessment of Asher's background, saying previous checks were inadequate.

''You have told me stuff we didn't know,'' McLaughlin told the Times for its Saturday editions. ''We should know more about a company we are doing business with.'' (emphasis supplied.)

You can read more in the St. Petersburg Times, here.

In the past five years he's donated more than $735,000 to Democratic and Republican parties and candidates. Most of his money has gone to Democrats: $505,000 in the past five years and $65,000 to U.S. Sen. Bob Graham's 2002 initiative campaign to re-establish the state Board of Regents.

"He's a good fella," said Moore, who retired Thursday from FDLE.

Update: The 'Former Drug Smuggler' language is that used in the headline of the St. Petersberg Times Article.