SHARPSHOOTERS AIM TO HALT DRUG RUNS AT SEA

MILITARY: The Coast Guard's Tactic Has Already Netted 3 Tons Of Cocaine.

WASHINGTON- Coast Guard sharpshooters have been firing from helicopters to
knock out the engines of cocaine-laden boats in the Caribbean, officials
disclosed Monday. The tactic - one not used since the 1920s Prohibition era
- - has already netted three tons of cocaine.

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

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

"Operation New Frontier" has led to the capture of 13 crew members from
four boats and more than three tons of cocaine destined for the U.S.
market, said Barry McCaffrey, the 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 tons, with a street value of $3.7 billion.

"We have made the drug smugglers afraid. We will now make them disappear,"
McCaffrey said at a news conference.

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. Using a
sharpshooter is the Coast Guard's last resort to stop the boats.

Sharpshooter Charlie Hopkins, nicknamed "El Diablo" because his .50-caliber
Robar rifle bears the packing number 999, fired three shots Aug. 16 that
disabled a vessel. Hopkins, 32, of Winslow, Maine, said he aims his laser
targeting sight only at the speeding crafts' engines.

"We're still humanitarian. We just want to stop the flow," he said, noting
that each helicopter carries a life raft if a boat is accidentally sunk.