The “Shiprider” Integrated Cross-border Maritime Law Enforcement Operations, with combined crews of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement officers, has already proven successful for both Canada and the United States, including allowing both countries to leverage existing law enforcement resources, providing for a seamless law enforcement presence at the border and enhancing the operational flexibility of law enforcement.
In June 2014, the crew of the CGC Key Largo arrested two suspected smugglers who tried to avoid law enforcement authorities by allegedly forcing migrants overboard from their already unseaworthy vessel and causing the vessel to capsize in waters off the Dominican Republic.
The program works, and not just to interdict drugs. In September 2014, a Coast Guard and RCMP Shiprider team arrested two individuals on Lake St. Clair between Michigan and Ontario, and seized 1,500 pounds of pipe tobacco worth $485,000 (including nearly $205,000 in evaded duties and taxes).
The human element
Human trafficking is a huge problem on a global scale. The State Department estimates there are more than 27 million adult and child human trafficking victims.
The service has long been involved in cases of human trafficking. In 1820, the brig Dallas, a U.S. Revenue Marine cutter, captured the slaver Antelope, also known as the General Ramirez, off the northern coast of Florida with 280 African slaves. The transportation of slaves had been declared illegal beginning Jan. 1, 1808, under the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves. Capturing the ship was just part of this saga. Many questions arose in this complicated case of who owned the ship and its cargo.
Crewmembers from the CGC Key Largo rescue a Haitian migrant from the water west of Mona Island, Puerto Rico, June 13, 2014. The suspected smugglers, in an attempt to flee the area and avoid interdiction, allegedly forced the migrants, including a minor, overboard without life jackets. U.S. Coast Guard photo
During 2013, the Coast Guard interdicted more than 2,000 migrants attempting to enter the United States illegally – often aboard overcrowded, unsafe, and unsanitary vessels. The human trafficking at sea is not only illegal, it is deadly.
In June 2014, the crew of the CGC Key Largo arrested two suspected smugglers who tried to avoid law enforcement authorities by allegedly forcing migrants overboard from their already unseaworthy vessel and causing the vessel to capsize in waters off the Dominican Republic. One of the Haitian migrants died, and 19 were rescued.
“This incident demonstrates just how ruthless smugglers are. They have no regard for human life and are only seeking to profit from this illicit activity,” said Lt. Daniel E. Stepler, Key Largo’s commanding officer.
Beyond the illegal migrant activity in the Caribbean, there has also been an increase in the migrants from Asia, mostly from the People’s Republic of China, being transported by sophisticated, extremely violent, alien smugglers.
Protecting living marine resources
The Coast Guard advances national goals for the conservation and management of living marine resources and their environment. It enforces international agreements and law to suppress damaging illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activity on the high seas and in the nation’s EEZ to protect the health of America’s fisheries, and it works with partner nations to ensure the viability of global fish stocks.