The U.S. Coast Guard Patrols 6 Million Miles of Ocean to Find Cocaine Smugglers

STOPPING DRUGS AT SEA

Every day, a high-stakes battle affecting the security and well-being
of millions of Americans is played out far off our shores. The
conflict occurs across more than 6 million square miles of ocean--an
area larger than the size of the contiguous United States--where
smugglers transport cocaine and other illegal drugs from South
America. Their cargo is ultimately intended for sale in our cities and
towns---but not if the U.S. Coast Guard stops it first.

"Cocaine trafficking is the leading drug threat to the U.S.," said
Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center.
Half the police departments surveyed in the country identify cocaine
as the drug most contributing to violent crimes, according to Walther.
After marijuana, cocaine is the second-most-used illegal drug in our
country--more than 36 million people have tried it at least once. Its
sales help support the activities of criminal gangs throughout the
Americas; Mexican drug cartels; and terrorist organizations like FARC,
a revolutionary group in Colombia.

Each year, an estimated 1.2 million pounds of cocaine enter our
country, the bulk of it by boat over the Pacific to Mexico and then by
land across the border. "The Coast Guard is the premier maritime
protector of the United States," said R. Gil Kerlikowske, White House
drug-policy director. Although the Navy has the power to stop
suspected traffickers, Navy boardings of foreign ships could be
considered acts of war. The Coast Guard is the only branch of the
armed forces that can legally board vessels registered in another
country and arrest criminals. That's why Coast Guard boarding teams
ride along on all Navy antidrug patrols.

In 2009, the Coast Guard seized 352,863 pounds of cocaine from
traffickers who used a variety of vessels: fishing boats; small, quick
boats called "go fasts"; and 65-foot-long, low-lying semisubmarines.
Smugglers employ separate spotter and refueling ships and communicate
through coded radio transmissions. Some have even hired women to
seduce U.S. sailors and learn the movements of their ships.

This fall, the Coast Guard cutter Sherman and two other ships, along
with a handful of planes, had the enormous job of patrolling the vast
Eastern Pacific section of the drug zone. "We're like little postage
stamps on the sea," said Capt. Michael Haycock, the Sherman's
commanding officer. Carrying a crew of 166 men and women, the Sherman
was on a 10-week tour of duty. Its route was directed by an
international task force called JIATF-South that is headquartered in
Key West, Fla. The task force oversees the detection and monitoring of
potential traffickers and supports the interdiction efforts of Navy,
Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Customs and
Border Protection vessels and planes. "JIATF-South is the brains,"
Haycock said. "We're the hands."

One day in late November, crew members in the Sherman's
combat-and-control room received intelligence and directions to move
south. Suspected smugglers from Colombia were said to be traveling the
Eastern Pacific corridor. After racing at top speed, the cutter had
gotten within 20 miles of the route of the purported traffickers by
nightfall.

Now it was time for the helicopter squad to take off from the
Sherman's deck and do its part. On board the chopper was Petty Officer
3rd Class Kimberly Dechmerowski, 25, an aerial gunner. If a chase
erupted, she would be the person responsible for using a sniper rifle
to shoot out the engines of the drug boat without harming any of its
passengers--while the boat is going 40 miles an hour or more. Adding
to the pressure: Dechmerowski was on her very first patrol as a gunner.

At 7:20 p.m., the command "Warning! Go fast go fast!" roared from the
Sherman's intercom. The helicopter crew had radioed the cutter that it
had spotted the white wake of its target, and the chopper and the ship
shifted courses for a confrontation. The Sherman's steel stairwells
rang with the sound of running boots as personnel prepared to launch
two swift Zodiac boats, each bearing a five-person boarding team armed
with pistols and shotguns.

But more than a well-trained crew is needed to pull off a successful
drug bust--the Coast Guard must receive permission from the proper
authorities before entering another nation's waters or boarding a
vessel flying a national flag. The alleged smugglers were in
Panamanian territory. Fortunately, the U.S. has 27 separate bilateral
agreements with nations located in the drug-transit zone--including
Panama--to expedite the approval process. "Otherwise, the bad guys
might get away in the time it takes to get permission," Haycock said.

At 9:30 p.m., the helicopter was hovering 60 feet above the
35-foot-long suspect boat. Four men were seen on board, along with
many large plastic-wrapped bales.

"We flashed our blue lights to stop them," said Lt. j.g. Matt Van
Ginkel, the helicopter pilot. "We tried to hail them over the radio."
But the boat kept going, and its passengers began frantically throwing
the plastic bales overboard. Dechmerowski leaned out of the chopper to
shoot off tracer warning fire--this was the Coast Guard's way of
giving the suspects one last chance to surrender. Instead, "the boat
sped up and started zigzagging away," she said. The chopper followed.

Dechmerowski picked up a .50-caliber rifle, a 30-pound semiautomatic
weapon. "She seemed apprehensive at first," Van Ginkel said. "Then
bam-bam-bam. She blew apart the middle engine, and it started smoking.
The boat stopped." A few minutes later, the Zodiac boats with the
Coast Guard teams arrived to hold the suspects in place.

Unfortunately, the men had dumped their entire cargo, evidence that
the authorities would need to prove they were smuggling cocaine. The
Sherman reached the scene by 11 p.m., and all hands were called up on
deck. Crew members hung over the railings, using searchlights and
handheld floodlights to scour the water for bales. Thirteen were
eventually recovered, but Cmdr. Patrick St. John, the Sherman's
executive officer, estimated twice the amount had sunk to the ocean
floor. Thanks to that one bust, over $50 million worth of cocaine
would not be reaching American streets. When Dechmerowski was told the
figure, she was astounded and said, "Everyone has a calling in life,
and I am finally serving a good purpose." Hours later, Panamanian
authorities arrived to take away the suspects and the evidence. The
boat's captain, Dionisio Beltran, turned out to be a much-wanted
reputed smuggler.

On its fall patrol, the Sherman's crew made several other big scores,
halting a fishing boat holding 4885 pounds of cocaine and five other
go fasts that Dechmerowski disabled by shooting out their engines. In
total, the Sherman interdicted an estimated $1.3 billion worth of
cocaine in 10 weeks.

Despite these successes, Haycock acknowledged that the flow of cocaine
to the U.S. is never ending. "We're stopping drugs," he said, "but
we'd be even more effective with more modern equipment." (The Coast
Guard received $1.2 billion for drug interdiction in 2009.) One good
sign: Cocaine's street price in our country has recently doubled, said
the DEA's Nicholas Kolen, which shows that some of the traffickers'
supply lines have been disrupted by antidrug patrols.

For every success, the Sherman's crew faces plenty of frustration.
Sometimes, the intelligence doesn't pan out. On the fall patrol, the
cutter spent four days monitoring a Costa Rican fishing boat.
Investigators at JIATF-South were fairly certain the boat had drugs.
But when the Sherman's teams finally boarded the vessel, they found
nothing after searching for hours.

Questions haunted Lt. Krystyn Pecora, the Sherman's head of
operations, the next morning: Had the Coast Guard missed the drug
shipment? Was the boat acting as a decoy to distract the Americans as
a shipment was snuck past? Or were the men on the fishing boat truly
innocent?

"All of those are possible," said Chief Warrant Officer Michael Jolly
of the Sherman. "Out here everyone on both sides is very good at what
they do."

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COAST GUARD FACTS

* The U.S. Coast Guard, one of our country's five armed services, was
founded in 1790 to stop smuggling and to enforce customs and trade
laws.

* Unlike other military branches, which operate under the Department
of Defense, the Coast Guard serves under the Department of Homeland
Security.

* It is the smallest of all of the armed services, with 42,000
active-duty personnel and a $9.9 billion annual budget. Today the
Coast Guard has 11 official missions--its major duties include
protecting America's ports, waterways, and 95,000 miles of shoreline;
drug interdiction; navigation assistance (including lighthouse
upkeep); and search-and-rescue.

* In 2009, the Coast Guard responded to 23,555 search-and-rescue cases
and saved 4747 people.

* It operates America's only icebreakers, which keep waterways open
for commercial traffic and for supplies needed for Arctic and
Antarctic research sites.