SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and the Dutch Caribbean coast guard interdicted seven suspected drug smuggling vessels in the past two weeks near Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in the Eastern Caribbean.
The collaboration between the federal agencies resulted in more than 3,700 pounds of cocaine, worth more than $64 million and 19 suspected drug smugglers being apprehended.
The assets involved in these disruptions include:
- CBP Air and Marine Operations DHC-8 and UH-60 aircraft
- Coast Guard Cutter Reliance
- Coast Guard Cutter William Trump
- Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Napier
- Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Doyle
- Coast Guard Cutter Donald Horsley
- Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter
- USS Comstock
- A Dutch coast guard DH-8 aircraft
On April 1, U.S. Southern Command began enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere to disrupt the flow of drugs in support of Presidential National Security Objectives. Numerous U.S. agencies from the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security cooperated in the effort to combat transnational organized crime. The Coast Guard, Navy, Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with allied and international partner agencies, play a role in counter-drug operations.
The fight against drug cartels in the Caribbean Sea requires unity of effort in all phases from detection, monitoring and interdictions, to criminal prosecutions by international partners and U.S. Attorneys Offices in districts across the nation. The law enforcement phase of counter-smuggling operations in the Caribbean Sea is conducted under the authority of the Coast Guard 7th District, headquartered in Miami, Florida. The interdictions, including the actual boardings, are led and conducted by members of the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Caribbean Corridor Strike Force (CCSF) is a multi-agency Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force group operating in the District of Puerto Rico focusing on Caribbean and South American-based Transnational Criminal Organizations involved in the maritime and air smuggling shipments of narcotics from Puerto Rico to the Continental U.S. and in the laundering of drug proceeds using bulk cash smuggling and sophisticated laundering activities. CCSF signatory agencies include the DEA, HSI, FBI, CGIS, USMS, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.