The Coast Guard is in the vanguard of forces opposing this threat, but cannot meet the challenge alone. Partnerships are vital. “Countering TOC today requires an integrated and comprehensive approach,” the White House report states.
According to then-Commandant Adm. Robert Papp Jr., in testimony before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, and House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere in April 2014, the Coast Guard has interdicted more than 500 vessels transporting shipments of cocaine from South America since 1995. This includes the arrest or detention of nearly 2,000 smugglers. Over the last five years, Coast Guard cutters and law enforcement detachments (LEDETs) operating in the offshore regions of the transit zone have removed more than 500 metric tons of cocaine, with a wholesale value of nearly $17 billion.
Interdiction assets
“At the forefront of detection, monitoring, interdiction, and apprehension operations, the Coast Guard deploys a variety of offshore assets against drug traffickers in the transit zone, including major cutters, long and medium range fixed-wing aircraft, Airborne Use of Force [AUF] capable helicopters, and law enforcement detachments embarked on U.S. Navy ships and allied-nation vessels that supplement organic Coast Guard capabilities,” said Papp. “The Coast Guard also continues to pursue testing and future acquisition of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) to enhance its future interdiction capability. Major cutters and surface combatants, combined with AUF capable aircraft and supported by long-range search aircraft, have continuously proven to be an incredibly effective interdiction system when employed in the Western Hemisphere transit zone. During a recent patrol aboard one of our new national security cutters, the Coast Guard tested the ScanEagle UAS, which proved to be a superb force multiplier in two separate law enforcement cases, resulting in the removal of 570 kilograms of cocaine and the detention of six suspected smugglers.”
“Coast Guard cutters, maritime patrol aircraft, and law enforcement detachments embarked on U.S. Navy and Allied nation vessels are critical enforcement and deterrence assets in the offshore environment,” Rear Adm. William Lee, Coast Guard Atlantic Area commander, told the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security in November 2013. “They are capable of responding to threats far from our coasts and maintain a vigilant presence over U.S. interests on the high seas and in our EEZ. Closer to home, Coast Guard helicopters, patrol boats, and boat stations monitor, track, and interdict vessels of interest. In our ports, the Coast Guard partners with federal, state, local, tribal, and industry stakeholders to monitor critical infrastructure, conduct vessel escorts and patrols, and inspect vessels and facilities. The Coast Guard’s mix of multi-mission cutters, aircraft, boats, as well as deployable specialized forces allows us to exercise layered and effective security throughout the maritime domain.”
Partner nations
The Coast Guard is the primary agency enforcing U.S. law in the maritime domain, and many of these laws have an international component. As such, the United States works with other countries to carry out enforcement activities to prevent illegal fishing, pollution, drug smuggling, and migration as well as human trafficking, which affect the world, not just the United States.
“To more effectively counter maritime threats in the offshore region and throughout the Western Hemisphere, the Coast Guard maintains more than 30 maritime bilateral law enforcement agreements with partner nations,” Lee explained. “These agreements facilitate coordination of operations and the forward deployment of boats, cutters, aircraft, and personnel to deter and counter threats as close to their origin as possible.”
Part of the strategy is to interdict smuggling at the source, or in transit before it reaches the United States. In coordination with the Joint Interagency Task Force South, the Coast Guard works closely with partner nations in Central and South America, leveraging their local expertise and experience to improve maritime governance in the littoral regions of the maritime domain in the region, which has been exploited by TOC and their illicit smuggling networks, to disrupt these networks.
While the Coast Guard used to look for rumrunners smuggling alcohol into the United States during Prohibition, today the focus is on illegal narcotics. The service has had many successes.
In U.S. waters, the Coast Guard operational commanders and interagency partners provide a robust presence in the U.S. maritime approaches, employing patrol boats, pursuit-capable interceptors and smallboats, medium-range fixed-wing aircraft, and armed, land-based AUF-capable helicopters. By combining the Coast Guard’s law enforcement authorities and capabilities with those of interagency partners to bring a unified, whole-of-government effort to defend the nation from threats posed by illicit actors, the Coast Guard continually seeks to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its surface and air assets in support of the drug interdiction mission and the White House National Drug Control Strategy.
Then and now
America’s prohibition against alcohol from 1920 until 1933 resulted in a major law enforcement mission for the Coast Guard. A number of aircraft were used by the service to locate the rum boats, and the Navy loaned the Coast Guard 25 destroyers to combat the smuggling.