U.S. SNIPERS TARGET COCAINE BOATS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Coast Guard sharpshooters have been firing from
helicopters to knock out the engines of cocaine-laden boats in the
Caribbean, officials disclosed yesterday.

The tactic -- one not used since the 1920s Prohibition era -- has already
netted three tonnes of cocaine.

The previously secret assaults have been used in recent weeks to stop
smugglers who now use open-hull, low-profile boats called "Super Smugglers"
or "Go-Fasts" that carry barrels of fuel and about a tonne of cocaine each.

The use of such boats has doubled since 1996, officials say, and they now
carry more than 85 per cent of all maritime drug shipments.

"Operation New Frontier" has led to the capture of 13 crew members from four
boats and more than three tonnes of cocaine destined for the U.S. market,
said Barry McCaffrey, White House drug control director.

He said it and other anti-drug operations in the past year have brought
cocaine confiscation to a record 53 tonnes, with a street value of $3.7
billion (U.S.).

"We have made the drug smugglers afraid. We will now make them disappear,"
McCaffrey said at a news conference alongside one of the specially equipped
MH90 Enforcer helicopters leased by the coast guard.

Three of the four "Super Smugglers" stopped so far were disabled in the last
month. None of the four crews fired back, coast guard officials said, but
U.S. agents are allowed to return lethal fire if they do.

The latest tactics include machine-gun fire across boats' bows, use of a
"stingball" that explodes into a shower of rubber pellets and a special net
that entangles a boat's engines. Using a sharpshooter is the coast guard's
last resort to stop the boats.

Sharpshooter Charlie Hopkins fired three shots Aug. 16 that disabled a
vessel. Hopkins, 32, of Winslow, Me., said he aims his laser targeting sight
only at the engines of the speeding crafts.

"We're still humanitarian. We just want to stop the flow," he said.