Coasties try new tactics to combat smuggling - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Coasties try new tactics to combat smuggling

As the Mexican drug wars continue to escalate, the Coast Guard will need to dedicate more time and resources to its counternarcotic and migrant interdiction missions.

But as the service and its international partners get better at combating the threat, smugglers find more creative ways to elude capture.

Rear Adm. Joseph Nimmich, director of Joint Interagency Task Force South, said the successes following the introduction of biometric scanners in 2006 around Puerto Rico and the Mona Passage connecting the Atlantic to the Caribbean led to the introduction of self-propelled semi-submersibles, which are not only difficult to spot but for years allowed smugglers to dump their cargo or sink their vessels without repercussions.

Last year, Congress outlawed the mini-subs, saying there is no legal reason to operate that kind of vessel.

Since the law passed in September, the Coast Guard has interdicted five SPSS vessels carrying about 25 metric tons of cocaine toward the U.S. The U.S. attorney general can prosecute smugglers even if no contraband is found.

Rear Adm. Wayne Justice, the Coast Guard’s assistant commandant for capabilities, said the law still needs to be tested, but it, along with an increase in airborne capabilities, has forced smugglers to change their behavior and their primary smuggling routes.

The new trend, he said, is to smuggle both drugs and migrants along the coasts of Central America, attempting to evade U.S. interdiction by operating in territorial waters of partner nations.

Nimmich said that while America’s international partners are willing to help, they simply do not have the equipment to accomplish the mission. Night capabilities are particularly lacking, Nimmich said, a fact not lost on smugglers.

Drugs coming to the U.S. from South America pass through a 42 million square-mile transit zone.

In 2008, U.S. Southern Command disrupted the flow of more than 200 metric tons of cocaine worth the equivalent of about $5 billion, and the Coast Guard removed or seized more than 75,000 pounds of cocaine and more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana.

Justice said the Coast Guard has adapted to smugglers by expanding its armed counterdrug helicopter capabilities to disable go-fast vessels; however, the service does not have enough helicopters for every cutter operating in the area.

“A vessel without a helicopter is extremely limited,” Nimmich said. “Air capability is my ace in the hole.”

Justice said the Coast Guard is aware of the issue. He said unmanned aircraft will become an important tool in the counternarcotic missions, adding that the Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Patrol are working together to increase the unmanned systems.

“Whether operating thousands of miles down range off South and Central America, or operating in our nation’s littorals, the Coast Guard is playing a critical border security role, countering a broad range of illicit activities in established smuggling routes throughout the maritime domain,” Justice said Wednesday in prepared testimony to the House subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Services.