Coasties try new tactics to combat smuggling

[unhappycamper]

Coasties try new tactics to combat smuggling
By Amy McCullough - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Mar 13, 2009 17:38:27 EDT

As the Mexican drug wars continue to escalate, the Coast Guard will need to dedicate more time and resources to its counternarcotic and migrant interdiction missions.

But as the service and its international partners get better at combating the threat, smugglers find more creative ways to elude capture.

Rear Adm. Joseph Nimmich, director of Joint Interagency Task Force South, said the successes following the introduction of biometric scanners in 2006 around Puerto Rico and the Mona Passage connecting the Atlantic to the Caribbean led to the introduction of self-propelled semi-submersibles, which are not only difficult to spot but for years allowed smugglers to dump their cargo or sink their vessels without repercussions.

Last year, Congress outlawed the mini-subs, saying there is no legal reason to operate that kind of vessel.

Since the law passed in September, the Coast Guard has interdicted five SPSS vessels carrying about 25 metric tons of cocaine toward the U.S. The U.S. attorney general can prosecute smugglers even if no contraband is found.


Rest of article at: http://navytimes.com/news/2009/03/coastguard_interdictions_031309/%2e