SEIZURES OF DRUGS AT SEA SOARING

Coast Guard Adds Speed, Firepower

WASHINGTON -- A post-Sept. 11 policy of "pushing America's borders out to
sea," coupled with the deployment of armed helicopters against oceangoing
drug smugglers, has resulted in the Coast Guard seizing record hauls of
illegal narcotics this year.

Last year, the Coast Guard captured about 138,000 pounds of drugs--mostly
cocaine--worth about $4.5 billion. This year, it already has seized 72,000
pounds worth $2.4 billion.

"In the past, drug smugglers using what we call 'go fast' boats were able
to outrun anything we had," said Capt. Ken Ward, Coast Guard chief of law
enforcement. "Now we can stop them cold."

Called Operation New Frontier, the new method puts oceangoing cutters
carrying MH-68 helicopters armed with MK-40 machine guns and high-impact
.50-caliber sniper rifles--along with high-speed 26-foot interdiction
craft--against the smugglers.

Secure in the knowledge they could get away from the Coast Guard's fastest
cutters, smugglers have been using 30- to 40-foot "cigarette boats" and
similar craft to make long hauls of large quantities of drugs. The
speedboats can travel up to 50 m.p.h. over open seas while carrying up to 3
tons of cocaine each, the Coast Guard says.

They are used principally to transport narcotics from South America to the
northern Caribbean or northern Mexico, from which the drugs are smuggled in
smaller amounts into the United States, Ward said.

About 80 percent of all narcotics brought into the United States by sea
every year are carried in such fast craft.

"We were only about 10 percent effective against them," Ward said. "Now,
despite our port security and other missions, we're about 90 percent
effective."

Under Operation New Frontier, cutters patrolling Atlantic and Pacific
waters carry an MH-68 helicopter and a fast interdiction boat. When a
suspected smuggler craft is spotted and attempts a getaway, both are
deployed to give chase.

Traveling at nearly 200 miles an hour, the MH-68s can quickly reach and
circle over a drug boat. The MK-40 machine gun can suppress gunfire coming
from a suspect craft while a marksman can use the large-caliber,
single-shot sniper rifle to disable its engine.

"A .50-caliber round will crack engine blocks," Ward said.

The inflatable interdiction boats then sweep in so officers can board the
smuggler vessels.

Four Coast Guard cutters returned to home port from anti-drug patrols in
the Pacific recently with 19.5 tons of cocaine and 5.5 tons of marijuana
taken from smugglers in eight drug seizures during January and February.

First used on a test basis in 1999, the New Frontier units began going into
service in September, and there are eight helicopter and cutter
interdiction boat teams on duty.

"Drug interdiction is a cat-and-mouse game," Ward said. "They come up with
something, and we try to counter it, and then they try to counter what we
come up with."

The smugglers have not yet produced a defense or an alternative against the
boat teams, Ward said.

He said the new technique also is effective in curbing the smuggling of
illegal immigrants into the U.S.--a prime concern because of the terrorism
threat.

"Drug smuggling is part of the threat of terrorism when it adds to the
illegal movement of people, money and weapons across our borders," said
Vice Adm. Ray Riot, commander of the Coast Guard Pacific area.

The U.S. Customs Service's anti-terrorism border security efforts also have
netted large amounts of drugs. In recent actions stemming from intensified
screening efforts, customs inspectors at the Roma, Texas, port of entry
seized $3.8million in marijuana, while agents at El Paso, Texas, grabbed
$2.4 million worth of the drug.