Guarding Against Drugs in the Golden State

Stories and Photos by Steve Harding

The soldier stands on the ridgeline, peering at the valley below through
powerful binoculars. Next to him is a tripodmounted infrared sensor. Come
nightfall, the hightech device will allow him and his partner to locate
and track infiltrators attempting to cross the area's rough terrain.

Though the valley the troops are watching is in the rolling, scrubcovered
California hill country east of San Diego, this is not an exercise. The
mission is a real one, and the soldiers' weapons are loaded. The troops
belong to the California National Guard, and they and hundreds of other
Army and Air Guard members throughout the state are frontline participants
in America's war on drugs.

It's not difficult to understand why the California Guard, known as
CalGuard, has become a leader in providing military support to law
enforcement. California is the nation's gateway to Asia and the Pacific
Rim, and the steady increase in legitimate trade with those regions has
been mirrored by the increasingly sophisticated efforts of smugglers
seeking to move heroin, opium, hashish and other drugs into the United
States through California's air and sea ports.

In addition, the state's 1,000 miles of coastline and 147mile land border
with Mexico have historically offered hundreds of clandestine crossing
points for smugglers. Nor is the problem solely an external one: thinly
populated public and private lands in the state's rugged central and
northern mountains are ideal for growing marijuana, while clandestine labs
produce a range of narcotics in cities from San Diego to the Oregon border.

Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies already suffering from
manpower shortages and inadequate budgets are often hardpressed to keep
up with the threat. CalGuard's participation in counterdrug operations has
thus become essential, and many methods and policies pioneered in the state
have been adopted nationwide.

The California Guard's involvement in counterdrug operations began in 1983,
when Guard helicopters started flying missions in support of the state's
Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP, program. CAMP locates and
eradicates marijuana "gardens" hidden on public and private land, and Guard
aircraft and ground troops remain a vital factor in CAMP's continuing
success.

CalGuard's operations in support of federal law enforcement agencies were
pioneered during Operations Border Ranger I and II in 1988 and 1989,
respectively. The operations included OP missions aimed at border crossings
and clandestine airfields; enhanced personnel support at land and sea ports
of entry; and radar observation of the natural aerial smuggling routes into
the state. The operations' success proved that local, state and federal
agencies could work effectively in a joint counterdrug mission, while at
the same time netting some $80 million in contraband during BR II.

The success of the Border Ranger operations generated considerable support
for ongoing, routine operations. These were undertaken on a seasonal basis
until January 1990, when CalGuard began yearround counterdrug operations.
Though both manning and funding levels have decreased in the past few years
under the influence of federal budget reductions and the downsizing of the
nation's military forces, in mid1997 the California Guard had several
hundred personnel working fulltime in support of some 63 federal, state
and local law enforcement agencies.

The main reason the Guard has assumed such a significant role in
counterdrug operations, according to Col. Robert L. Klein, the southern
California liaison officer for CalGuard's Counterdrug Coordinator, is that
Guard members on counterdrug operations fall under Title 32 of the United
States Code. While the soldiers' and airmen's paychecks come from the
federal government and while the Guard closely coordinates its
counterdrug activities with the Defense Department's activeduty Joint Task
Force 6 CalGuard members work for California Governor Pete Wilson and
are under state, not federal, control.

"We are there to support law enforcement agencies," Klein said, "not to
enforce domestic law. We don't gather evidence, make seizures or arrest
people. Our people work under the direction of duly appointed law
enforcement officials, and Guard members do not make lawenforcement
decisions. We ensure that the lawenforcement agencies understand that the
Guard will offer equipment support and operators for the equipment, but
that the Guard member is not going to be part of the chain of custody."

The California Guard performs six counterdrug missions under the provisions
of National Guard Regulation 5002.

These are:

Program management, which includes general oversight duties. Observation
and reconnaissance missions, which include such operations as listening
posts and observation posts set up along the border, as well as aerial
observation and reconnaissance. Portofentry missions, which include such
things as soldiers and airmen inspecting vehicles, aircraft and ship cargo
containers, and inspecting incoming international mail at U.S. postal
service facilities.

Technical support, through which the Guard provides such personnel as
intelligence analysts and linguists to support law enforcement agencies.
All these personnel deal with secondhand information; they do not undertake
field interrogations or perform onsite translations in the field.

General support, which includes such things as the building of border roads
and fences and the transportation by air, land or sea of
counterdrugrelated cargos, but not the administrative movement of
nonmilitary counterdrug personnel.

Demandreduction programs, through which California Guard personnel work to
reduce drug use in the state by supporting communitybased drug use
prevention and information programs, mentoring and similar preventative
initiatives.

"We undertake support missions in these categories for any drug law
enforcement agency in the state of California that requests our services,"
Klein said. "We also sometimes provide equipment and assets for use by law
enforcement agencies in neighboring states."

The California Guard's counterdrug missions are prioritized by fiscal year,
and each year's plan must be approved by the governor before any equipment
or personnel can be allocated.

"When we get a mission request from a law enforcement agency, we first
ensure that it conforms to National Guard Regulation 5002, which is
essentially the governing document for the Guard's involvement in the
counterdrug program," Klein explained. "Once the request has been approved
we generate a warning order for the appropriate unit or personnel, and they
set up a planning conference between themselves and the supported law
enforcement agency. Together they'll generate an operations order and send
it to our Joint Counterdrug Task Force in Sacramento for review and
approval, a process that can take from 15 minutes to a month or more,
depending on the nature and complexity of the mission. Once the mission is
approved, the people in the field execute it."

Those "people in the field" belong to the several teams making up the
California National Guard's Joint Counterdrug Task Force. Three of the
teams Falcon, Hawk and Condor are specifically Air Guard and use
HH60 Pave Hawk helicopters and C26 and C130 fixedwing aircraft in the
reconnaissance and general support roles. The fourth team Eagle is an
Army Guard organization that operates OH58 reconnaissance and observation
helicopters. The remaining teams Shield, Dragon, Wolf, Engineer and Fox
are mixed ArmyAir Guard organizations. Some are predominantly "green
suit" while others are mainly "blue suit."

In the following pages we'll take a closer look at some of the roles Army
National Guard soldiers are playing in the Golden State's war on drugs.