AIR ASSAULT ON COCAINE

Coast Guard choppers fire on drug-ladden boats

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 3 tons 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 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 3 tons 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 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 alongside one of the specially equipped
MH90 Enforcer helicopters leased by the Coast Guard. The helicopter and a
sleek Coast Guard chase craft were brought to the Transportation Department
aboard flatbed trucks.

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 net that
entangles a boat's engines. Using a sharpshooter is the Coast Guard's last
resort to stop the boats.

Sharpshooter Charlie Hopkins, who carries a 50-caliber Robar rifle, 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 the each helicopter carries a life raft in case a boat is accidentally
blown up or sunk.

Adm. James E. Loy, Coast Guard commandant, said there was no chance that
commercial fishermen or pleasure boaters would be targeted by the
sharpshooters, saying that identification and extensive warnings are
required before aggressive tactics are employed.

"This special show is not going to be coming to a theater near you," he said
in an effort to reassure private boaters. Transportation Secretary Rodney
Slater, who oversees the Coast Guard, said "Operation New Frontier" will
lead to other high-tech interventions to counter drug smuggling. The Clinton
administration is asking for $17.8 billion to fight illegal drugs next year.

The officials declined to provide further details of the new tactics. But a
Coast Guard background briefing described the dramatic encounters and
released videotape of two incidents that showed helicopters as they stopped
speeding vessels.

The Coast Guard is not believed to have authorized firing from the air to
disable vessels since fixed-wing aircraft were used to chase down and stop
shipments of illegal alcohol in the 1920s, according to the service's
historian's office.

Loy said although the new tactics were not intended to kill or injure, they
do add to smugglers' risks.

"If there's a new risk on the part of the bad guys, that's terrific," he said.