COAST GUARD GUNS FOR FAST BOATS IN DRUG BUSTS

PORTSMOUTH -- Drug dealers trying to outrun the Coast Guard with high-speed
boats are increasingly being cut off at the pass.

Coast Guard helicopters and cutters are shooting at suspicious boats trying
to avoid capture.

This get-tough approach, called Operation New Frontier, is relatively new
for the Coast Guard, which had previously refrained from firing at civilian
vessels.

The Coast Guard on Friday announced the results of eight recent drug boat
seizures resulting from its drug-interdiction operation, which combines the
use of cutters, armed helicopters and other assets to stop the high-speed
drug boat threat.

In a case 150 miles southwest of Costa Rica last month, the Coast Guard
cutters Boutwell and Hamilton based in Alameda, Calif., together with a
C-130 aircraft, teamed up for the seizure. Gunfire from a helicopter, was
sprayed in front of the fleeing boat, slowing it down. Eventually
additional rounds from a sharpshooter aboard the helicopter disabled the
boat's engines.

Coast Guard personnel riding in a rigid hull inflatable boat were then able
to arrest six people aboard and seize 6,749 pounds of heroin.

The Coast Guard released photographs Friday showing the pursuit and capture.

In addition to machine guns and rifle fire, the Coast Guard has used
nonlethal weapons, such as sting bombs and entanglement nets to warn,
disable and stop fleeing drug boats, according to Lt. Cmdr. Brendan
McPherson, a spokesman for the Coast Guard's Atlantic Area Command,
headquartered in Portsmouth.

The use of a helicopter's machine gun and a 50-caliber rifle, used by a
sharpshooter, are authorized to disable a boat's engine if other methods
fail to stop them, he said.

About 80 percent of illegal narcotics that enter the United States by water
are transported by the ``go-fast'' boats, the Coast Guard said. Such
vessels, valued at more than $250,000, are normally 30 to 40 feet long and
can travel up to 60 mph while carrying up to three tons of cocaine.

``Before Operation New Frontier, Coast Guard forces were able to stop an
average of one in 10 `go-fasts' encountered on the high seas,'' McPherson
said. That was because of the relatively slow 25 mph speed of a Coast Guard
cutter. Coast Guard helicopters also were not armed in peacetime because
they are normally used for search and rescue work.

Since launching Operation New Frontier in 1999, the Coast Guard has seized
10,960 pounds of cocaine confiscated in the interdiction cases involving
go-fast boats, McPherson said.

The operation also has seized eight vessels by using gunfire from
helicopters, made 29 arrests and confiscated more than 27,000 pounds of
illegal drugs.

The operation includes the use of specially designed helicopters, called
MH-90 Enforcers, which are leased. Such tactics were never used before
because the Coast Guard did not have the proper equipment.

The helicopters are part of Interdiction Tactical Squadron 10, based at
Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla. They operate in tandem with other
maritime units.

In a similar case on Feb. 19, four people were arrested and 1,200 pounds of
heroine was seized 130 miles south of Jacmel, Haiti, by the cutters
Gallatin, based out of Charleston, S.C., and Decisive, based in Pascagoula,
Miss.

A P-3 Orion aircraft initially located the suspected go-fast boat and
notified the cutters. Helicopters were on scene within minutes and observed
the high-speed boat jettison cargo, officials said.

The helicopters used disabling machine gun fire to disable the boat's
engines. Coast Guard personnel arriving in small boats arrested those aboard.

One other case this year, about 20 miles from Guatemala, resulted in the
arrest of four people and the seizure of 5,220 pounds of cocaine when a
Coast Guard helicopter gave chase to a suspected vessel.

However, the suspects stopped their vessel on their own, with no force
required, then waited for Coast Guard law enforcement officers to arrive by
small boat from the cutters Boutwell and Hamilton.