How the U.S. Coast Guard Fights Drug Smuggling at Sea

We’re outdoors of Jacksonville, Fla., flying with the Coast Guard’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, or HITRON, as they chase down a speedboat simulating drug-runners at sea. These are the counterdrug cops of the excessive seas. They intercept suspicious boats, seize unlawful narcotics and arrest suspected drug smugglers to attempt to carry them to justice. The gunner goals for the engines. “We don’t deliberately shoot to harm, kill, injure anyone. Our main goal goes to be the engine.” In the present day, they’re working towards on a standard smugglers’ tactic, utilizing their our bodies to defend the motors from gunfire. They do that as a result of they know the Coast Guard will do what they’ll to keep away from casualties. “And also you’re taking additional warning to not hit any folks on board these suspected drug boats.” “Appropriate.” “Why is that?” “I simply joined a life-saving service. That’s actually it.” The Pentagon has been hanging the identical kind of speedboats the Coast Guard is focusing on, declaring drug smugglers illegal combatants as a way to justify the operation. However authorized consultants have known as the assaults a violation of U.S. and worldwide regulation. We spent two days with HITRON and a tactical unit in Miami to see how they’ve been stopping and seizing drug boats by counting on nonlethal ways lengthy earlier than the army bought concerned. For the previous a number of months, the Coast Guard has centered its counterdrug efforts within the Japanese Pacific. Over 70 % of cocaine destined for the U.S. is trafficked via right here as much as Mexico. “We’re formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.” President Trump has cited fentanyl deaths to justify the deadly boat strikes. However boats which have been focused have been stated to be carrying cocaine, not fentanyl. In early December, the Coast Guard seized a ship with 20,000 kilos of cocaine, considered one of its largest hauls ever. Two days later, in the identical area, the U.S. army struck an alleged drug boat, killing everybody on board. I requested the Coast Guard about its mission and authorized protocols to cease the boats, seize the medicine, and accumulate proof that can be utilized to prosecute smugglers in court docket. “It’s the character of regulation enforcement. No regulation enforcement officer ever goes right into a situation trying to throw restraint to the wind.” They usually’ve had a file breaking yr. The Coast Guard seized almost $4 billion value of narcotics, about 4 occasions their annual common, and detained 279 alleged drug traffickers. In a lounge above the hangar, Captain Broadhurst confirmed us movies of the strategies his squad has honed over three many years at sea. “Has anybody ever efficiently evaded a HITRON unit?” “We now have a 97 % success fee as soon as we’re on high of a vessel. So only a few, I might say.” Broadhurst informed us that smugglers additionally perceive the Coast Guard’s limits and have tailored accordingly. Along with throwing themselves on their engines, he confirmed us a video of suspected smugglers attempting to thwart the Coast Guard by leaping overboard, realizing that they may shift technique. “So at this level, we stop regulation enforcement, and we go right into a search and rescue mode. As each a army service on the slicing fringe of what we’re doing for the administration, and a life-saving service, there are simply sensible and humanitarian the explanation why we have now to get that particular person out of the water.” In October, President Trump, in justifying the boat strikes, stated the Coast Guard interdictions had failed. “We’ve been doing that for 30 years, and it has been completely ineffective.” “How do you reply to that?” “The president does have a degree that we’re patrolling someplace twice the dimensions of the USA of America, with fewer than 12 patrol automobiles. So you may perceive that if we had extra operational assets, we might be extra operationally efficient.” In Miami, we met a Coast Guard tactical crew that boards the smuggling boats after the helicopter squad has disabled them. “All proper, so your situation: We now have a vessel that we’re tasked with getting pos-con of and hyperlink up with the opposite crew.” We watched them as they educated to board a a lot bigger vessel, like a container ship or oil tanker. First, they enter the ship and rapidly detain a crew member. Then on the following flooring, they’re confronted by armed smugglers. As they’re educated, they hearth solely in self-defense. It’s a situation that might change into extra seemingly because the U.S. escalates tensions with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. In mid-December, President Trump declared a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers going to and from Venezuela. Since then, specialised Coast Guard groups working off the coast of Venezuela have boarded and seized at the very least two oil tankers. With its distinctive authority to board stateless and unlawful vessels at sea, the Coast Guard continues to play a essential function in implementing the blockade.