Operated by drug cartels and transnational organized crime syndicates, they transit the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, skirt the islands of the Caribbean Sea, and snake across the Gulf of Mexico laden with bulging bales of pure cocaine and tons of marijuana.
As the lead federal agency for maritime drug interdiction, the U.S. Coast Guard faces a job that makes looking for a needle in a haystack seem relatively easy. “The areas that we’re covering may be like a police squad car covering from Atlanta, Ga., to Boise, Idaho,” says Cmdr. Patrick Dougan, commanding officer of USCGC Escanaba (WMEC-907) and a veteran of the Interdiction Division of the Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement.
Despite the odds, the Coast Guard has racked up an impressive record of victories in the war on drugs. During FY 2012 alone, it prevented 124,585 pounds of marijuana and 235,921 kilograms of cocaine from hitting U.S. streets.
Experience matters
The Coast Guard has been on the lookout for smugglers since it was established in 1790. The service’s original revenue cutters hunted down merchants seeking to avoid import tariffs. In the 1870s, the target was opium entering the country tucked away in the baggage of Chinese immigrants and the cargo holds of merchant ships. The need to crack down on the rum-running operations that proliferated during Prohibition led to an expansion of the Coast Guard in the 1920s. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Navy tapped the Coast Guard’s antismuggling expertise in an effort to curtail the flow of arms and supplies to communist forces.
In the 1970s, the dangers associated with domestic smuggling began to change dramatically. With the rise of vicious Colombian drug cartels, a flood of cocaine and violence began washing up on U.S. shores. The Coast Guard — armed with a long history of successful interdictions, along with its statutory exemption from the Posse Comitatus Act banning the military from civilian law-enforcement activities — was ideally suited to face the growing threat.
Over the years, the maritime transit of illegal contraband has continued to expand and evolve. “The challenge today is dealing with a well-funded, well-organized adversary,” Dougan explains. “We deal with transnational criminal organizations that may have gotten their start in drug smuggling but have expanded into a variety of illicit activities. We’re dealing with folks that have tentacles everywhere. Because it’s a global epidemic [and] because it’s a problem that affects so many countries, we’ve come together not only in a whole-of-U.S.-government approach, but, really, we’ve developed a whole-of-region, even a whole-of-world, approach in combating drug smuggling.”
Fortunately, as Dougan points out, “One of the great things the Coast Guard has done — and has always done — is partner with people.”
Always prepared
In 1986, the Reagan administration declared narco-trafficking a national security threat. The same year, legislation was passed that would allow the Coast Guard’s unique law-enforcement capabilities to be carried further and farther in the battle. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 designated billets on U.S. Navy ships specifically for Coast Guard law-enforcement detachments. “They’re an exceptional force multiplier,” Dougan says of the eight- to 12-member law-enforcement detachments, known as LEDETs.
Coast Guard Lt. David Zukowski spends about 220 days a year away from his homeport in California as a LEDET officer-in-charge. He and every member of his team have been trained specially for the mission but, Zukowski says, “It takes patience more than anything to do this job and do it well.”
In a typical two-month patrol aboard a U.S. Navy frigate, he might see one or two cases. Then again, there’s a chance he might see six or seven cases. “You’ll have not much luck for a few weeks, and then, all of a sudden, you’re just getting case after case.
60 MILITARY OFFICER JANUARY 2014
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