Tool Needed to Prosecute Drug Traffickers Using Subs

I commend the Government of Mexico and the Mexican Navy for their superb interdiction of a self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) vessel carrying more than 10,000 pounds of cocaine last Wednesday. This was a remarkable example of the value of active international cooperation in combating drug smugglers and the great effectiveness of the U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force South. The professionalism demonstrated by the CBP Marine aircrew, JIATF-South and Mexican Navy was one of the most impressive international interdictions I have seen in my 37-year career and sends a clear signal to drug traffickers and other transnational criminals that there is a unified effort to secure our maritime borders from all hazards.

SPSS vessels represent an increasingly significant threat to our safety and security. These vessels, which can be both manned and operated remotely, can transport multi-ton loads of cocaine and other illicit cargo to the U.S. The use of SPSS vessels has grown in recent years as a means to counter effective interdiction efforts. The SPSS, once perceived as an impractical and risky smuggling tool, has proven successful as an innovative and highly mobile, asymmetrical method of conveyance. After just 23 total SPSS events between 2000 and 2007, drug trafficking organizations conducted at least 45 SPSS transits during the first six months of FY 2008. SPSS now account for 32% of all maritime cocaine flow in the transit zone.

Success against this emerging threat requires a multi-faceted approach, including: international cooperation and coordination; a persistent patrol presence in the transit zone; active intelligence gathering and sharing; and effective legislation to facilitate prosecution. As demonstrated by last week’s case, the U.S. and its partners have the ability to aggressively pursue and interdict SPSS vessels, but it is the legislative piece that is currently missing. The Mexican Navy’s interdiction notwithstanding, the overwhelming majority of SPSS interdictions result in the successful scuttling of the vessel with its entombed cargo of cocaine. Absent contraband evidence, there are few practical options under existing U.S. law to pursue prosecution.

If operation of and embarkation in an SPSS were illegal, U.S. interdiction forces and U.S. Attorneys would have the necessary legal tools to combat the SPSS threat even in the absence of recovered drugs or other contraband. Criminalizing the operation of stateless SPSS vessels on international voyages would improve officer safety, deter the use of these inherently dangerous vessels, and facilitate effective prosecution of criminals involved in this treacherous and emerging trend.

The penalty for any SPSS offense should be sufficiently strong to deter use and encourage cooperation by those interdicted at sea. Because the desired legislation is limited to stateless SPSS and submarines on international voyages, the law would not affect legitimate business users and law abiding hobbyists.

We strongly support the legislation introduced in both the House and Senate and urge passage of this legislation to enhance both national and regional security and fully empower our ongoing interdiction efforts.

Admiral Thad W. Allen
Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard

State of the Coast Guard

Yesterday I delivered my second State of the Coast Guard address at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. In this annual address to the Coast Guard, our interagency partners and our maritime stakeholders, I focused on the Coast Guard’s future – the strategy, legislation, and budget we need to build a 21st Century Coast Guard.

Since becoming Commandant nearly two years ago, I’ve traveled across the country and around the world to meet personally with thousands of Coast Guard active duty, reserve, Auxiliary and civilian employees. I made a commitment to them that we would provide the equipment, support and training they needed do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. I pledged to continue to recapitalize our aging fleet and command and control systems. I’m pleased to report that we are seeing the results of those efforts right now.

The Coast Guard’s first major cutter to be built in more than 25 years, the National Security Cutter Bertholf, successfully completed sea trials this week and we are preparing to missionize three new HC-144 Ocean Sentry maritime patrol aircraft. We are also well underway in our reorganization of our force structure, having made significant progress across all fronts to modernize and transform the service over the past year and a half. More importantly, we’ve provided a vital service to the American public and reached new milestones in our history in the past year, such as the removal of a record-breaking 350,000 pounds of cocaine at sea and our celebration of a million lives saved since 1790.

Going forward, the Coast Guard cannot rest on our reputation or remain fixated on our wake. Now is the time to build a 21st Century Coast Guard, one that will be responsive to the environment as it evolves around us. As a unique instrument of national security, we will work closer than ever with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to put our cooperative maritime strategy in action. As America’s lifesavers and guardians, we will enhance our marine safety program, develop our intelligence and maritime domain awareness, and take action to restore our polar icebreaking fleet, as we prepare to operate in an increasingly open Arctic. We also need to grow the Coast Guard. We cannot continue to meet the ever growing needs and higher expectations of our citizens with a workforce that is essentially no bigger than it was 50 years ago. That is why I will fight for every penny of the President’s FY09 $9.3 billion budget request. It is a down payment on the future of America’s Coast Guard.

Never before has this nation relied so heavily on our oceans and waterways for the safety, security and prosperity of all Americans. And never before has this nation relied so much on its Coast Guard to protect the environment and our keep our communities safe and secure. We will answer that call.

All threats. All hazards. Always ready.

Admiral Thad Allen
Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard

Guarding Our Coasts Since 1790

Today marks another milestone in Coast Guard history. This afternoon, I joined Director John Walters of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and Mike Braun, Chief of Operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration, to announce that the Coast Guard seized more than 350,000 pounds of cocaine at sea this year, a record-breaking 160 metric tons worth an estimated street value of more than $4.7 billion. That’s half of the Coast Guard’s annual budget and surpasses all of our previous seizure records.

Our success is the direct result of Coast Guard men and women doing the hard things expected of those who “guard our coasts.” Every day, we execute this dangerous mission hundreds of miles from our borders to keep illegal drugs from reaching our shores where they threaten our families, our schools, and our communities here at home.



We are not alone in our efforts. We have tremendous cooperation among more than two dozen other nations throughout the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that make up the transit zone. Together with our federal law enforcement partners, Department of Defense counterparts, the Joint Interagency Task Force South, and 26 other nations in and around the transit zone, we are sharing more intelligence and rapidly deploying interdiction forces to seize more drugs than we ever have before. Whether suspected smugglers transit far offshore on the high seas to avoid detection or seek refuge in the territorial waters of coastal states, they ultimately cannot hide from the sights of our international partners who share in our determination to rid ourselves of this transnational threat to our collective safety and security.

We have the best interagency coordination and collaboration among our federal law enforcement partners and Department of Defense counterparts I have seen in more than 35 years in law enforcement. Following each successful seizure, our joint task forces for investigating and prosecuting drug cases, like Operation Panama Express, produce real-time, actionable intelligence to continuously improve our targeting. Our intelligence-based operations are great examples of the kind of interagency teamwork and coordination that exists among Customs and Border Protection, ICE, DEA, the Coast Guard, and other Homeland Security and Department of Justice agencies. This intelligence and information sharing among federal, state, local and international organizations is unprecedented and is shutting down drug traffickers.

New interdiction tools and tactics are forcing drug smugglers to go to greater lengths to change their own tactics in an effort to avoid detection and interdiction at sea. Smugglers are secreting cocaine into liquids, employing semi-submersible vessels that float just above the surface, and using less-traveled, lengthier routes far into the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to hide and evade law enforcement. Today, we are employing some of the most sophisticated, interoperable and capable hardware in our history to interdict smugglers at sea. Naval combatants from the U.S., Denmark, Great Britain and France routinely embark Coast Guard law enforcement teams for counterdrug patrols.

Our counterdrug strategy is working as we see growing amounts of drugs seized before they reach our shores. While the numbers are impressive, they don’t tell the whole story. The impact of these efforts is also unprecedented. This is made clear by the reduced supply of cocaine observed in more than 35 major cities throughout the United States.

In the last ten years alone, the Coast Guard has seized more than two million pounds of cocaine. With interagency teamwork, collaboration with our international partners, and ever-more effective tools and tactics, we will continue to tighten the web of detection and interdiction at sea, as we secure our maritime borders and keep illegal drugs out of the country.

For more than 200 years, the Coast Guard has been enforcing our nation’s laws and protecting our borders. Make no mistake about it: Our courageous men and women in law enforcement and those who support them are having a real impact on drug smugglers today. We can all sleep a little more soundly knowing the Coast Guard is on patrol.

Admiral Thad W. Allen
Commandant U.S. Coast Guard