Coast Guard Takes on Drug Smugglers in the Eastern Pacific
Story by Roger Gayman, Coast Guard District 11 Public Affairs Officer
The Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for maritime drug interdiction and shares the lead responsibility for air interdiction, making it a key player in combating the flow of illegal drugs to the United States. The Coast Guard's mission is to reduce the supply of drugs as proximate to the source as possible, by denying smugglers the use of air and maritime routes in the transit zone, a six-million-square-mile area that includes the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Pacific. Coast Guard District 11 is responsible for counter drug interdiction and apprehension operations in the Eastern Pacific.
The Eastern Pacific mirrors the size of the continental United States. 
To meet the challenge of patrolling this vast area, the Coast Guard coordinates closely with other federal agencies and Central and South American nations to disrupt and deter the flow of illegal drugs. This massive area, with few geographical choke points, limits the interdiction strategies. Therefore, the Coast Guard must rely heavily on partnerships with the Departments of Defense and Justice, and foreign governments.
According to Cmdr. Kelly L. Hatfield, Chief of Law Enforcement and Intelligence, Coast Guard District Eleven, “To be successful, maritime drug interdiction requires robust interagency collaboration in general areas such as: Intelligence Collection and Dissemination, Detection and Monitoring, Interdiction and Apprehension, and Prosecution and Investigation. Intelligence analysts provide information to Detection and Monitoring forces that in turn provide information to Interdiction and Apprehension forces. The post seizure investigation and information collected from the suspect vessel and crew completes and perpetuates the successful counter drug sphere.”
In the Eastern Pacific, the investigative team of Operation Panama Express, which includes the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Fla., the FBI, the DEA, the Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, develops actionable investigative intelligence. JIATF South, based in Key West, Fla., fuses hot investigative intelligence with other sources of intelligence and conducts Detection and Monitoring. When Detection and Monitoring forces move to intercept a suspect vessel, the Interdiction and Apprehension phase is entered and District Eleven, based in Alameda, Calif., assumes responsibility.
Coast Guard and U.S. Navy units deployed to the Eastern Pacific for counter drug patrols are under the tactical control of JIATF South while conducting Detection and Monitoring operations. These units shift tactical control to District Eleven before conducting law enforcement actions. When a boarding is imminent, these units request a shift of tactical control from JIATF South to District Eleven. If JIATF South concurs with the boarding recommendation, this information is forwarded to District Eleven. If District Eleven concurs, the district assumes tactical control for the Interdiction and Apprehension phase.
According to Lt. Benjamin A. Janczyk, Counter Drug Officer, Coast Guard District Eleven, “The legal authority to board suspected smuggling vessels is determined primarily by the nationality of the vessel, not by the persons on board. The United States has negotiated numerous international counter drug maritime bilateral agreements with the Central and South American nations bordering the Eastern Pacific. Bilateral agreements serve as standing flag state authority for the United States to take limited maritime counter drug law enforcement actions. On-scene units must have reasonable suspicion that the vessel is involved in illegal transportation of drugs in order to board the vessel.”
Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) personnel embarked on U.S. Navy vessels and Coast Guard boarding teams from Coast Guard cutters apprehend suspect vessels and crews. The wide area surveillance accomplished by fixed wing Maritime Patrol Aircraft operated by the Homeland Security Air and Marine Operations, the U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard, which have the speed and endurance to cover large sections of the Eastern Pacific, is critical inpositioning units to intercept smugglers.
In fiscal year 2004, the total cocaine seized by the Coast Guard was a record 241,713 pounds, worth approximately $7.7 billion. The previous annual record was
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A Coast Guard crew member weighs and labels one of many seized bales of cocaine. |
138,393 pounds. To put this historic achievement in context, the Coast Guard's average hours spent on drug interdictions before September 11, 2001 equaled 23 percent of its total operating hours. In fiscal year 2004, the operating hours spent on drug interdiction were 11 percent of the Coast Guard’s total operating hours. Drug interdictions consumed 18 percent of the Coast Guard's budget before September 11, 2001 and it was only 12 percent in both the fiscal year 2004 enacted and the 2005 requested budgets.
According to Rear Adm. Kevin J. Eldridge, Commander Coast Guard District Eleven, “The bottom line is that better intelligence and increased interagency and international cooperation have resulted in increased seizures.”
On September 5, 2004, representatives from the departments of Homeland Security, Defense and Justice conducted a news briefing in conjunction with the arrival of USS Curts, which included the offload of more than 75,000 pounds of cocaine from the Eastern Pacific, with a value of more than $2.3 billion.
The USS Curt’s offload included cocaine from five interdiction cases. The drugs were seized between August 31 and September 26 by Department of Defense and Coast Guard units working for JIATF South and District Eleven, and included the first and third largest seizures in Coast Guard history. A Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET), embarked aboard the USS Curts, made the largest discovery consisting of more than 30,000 pounds of cocaine on September 17 aboard the fishing vessel Lina Maria, approximately 300 nautical miles west of the Galapagos Islands. On September 23, a Coast Guard LEDET embarked aboard the USS Crommelin discovered 26,379 pounds of cocaine aboard the fishing vessel San Jose approximately 650 nautical miles southwest of the Galapagos Islands.
This is a synopsis of the five cases:
1. Go fast vessel 1: Intercepted by the USS Curts and the Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 108. 1,526 lbs of cocaine in 30 bales were discovered onboard the vessel approximately 300 nautical miles north of the Galapagos Islands on August 31. Five suspects were transferred to federal authorities for prosecution.
2. Go fast vessel 2: Intercepted by the Coast Guard Cutter Jarvis. 4,154 lbs of cocaine in 80 bales were recovered from the water.
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A Coast Guard boarding team maintains security over a go-fast boat and crew. The crew was later transferred to U.S. for prosecution. |
3. Fishing vessel Lina Maria: Intercepted by the USS Curts and the Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 108. 30,7109 lbs of cocaine in 600 bales were discovered onboard the vessel without nationality approximately 300 nautical miles west of Ecuador on September 13. Ten suspects were transferred federal authorities for prosecution.
4. Fishing vessel San Jose: Intercepted by the USS Crommelin and the Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 105. 26,379 lbs of cocaine in 525 bales were discovered onboard the Belizean vessel approximately 650 nautical miles southwest of the Galapagos Islands on September 23. Eight suspects were transferred to federal authorities for prosecution.
5. Fishing vessel Cielo Azul: Intercepted by the USS Curts and the Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 104. 12,588 lbs of cocaine in 245 bales were discovered onboard the Colombian vessel approximately 550 nautical miles west of the Columbia/Ecuador border on September 26. Eight were suspects transferred to federal authorities for prosecution.
As a result of the Coast Guard’s interagency partnership and efforts, over 75,000 pounds of cocaine never reached the United States and thirty-one smugglers were turned over to federal authorities for prosecution by the U. S. Attorney in Tampa, Fla.
The cooperation of foreign governments continues to be a key to the Coast Guard’s success in drug interdiction. On several occasions last fiscal year District Eleven engaged in a close cooperation with Central and South American governments, including Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama. In the case of the fishing vessel Lina Maria, a quick response from the Cambodian government, confirming suspicions that the vessel was not Cambodian flagged, enabled Coast Guard law enforcement teams to move forward quickly to execute the drug seizure. Likewise, the bilateral agreement between the United States and the government of Belize allowed the Coast Guard to execute the boarding quickly and seize the drugs aboard the Belize-flagged fishing vessel San Jose.
Cooperation and intelligence sharing between federal law enforcement agencies, combined with increased formal cooperation with foreign nations, have led to recent record drug seizures in the Eastern Pacific.
“I’d like to emphasize how critical the collaboration between all the agencies and countries is in the successful prosecution of smuggling cases. No one agency does it all – it’s a cooperative effort”, said Rear Adm. Kevin J. Eldridge, Commander Coast Guard District Eleven.
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