News

DATE=10/6/1999 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=COAST GUARD SEIZURES (L-ONLY) NUMBER=2-254734 BYLINE=MICHAEL BOWMAN DATELINE=MIAMI CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: The U-S Coast Guard is reporting a record year for drug interdiction, with vast amounts of cocaine and other narcotics seized in and around U-S territorial waters. V-O-A's Michael Bowman reports from Miami, the Coast Guard has added a new weapon to its anti-drug arsenal: armed helicopters that can intercept and disable narcotics-carrying vessels. TEXT: Over the last 12 months (fiscal year 1999), the U-S Coast Guard seized just over 50-thousand kilograms of cocaine - a 40-percent increase over the previous year - and equal to more than five-hundred million doses of the narcotic. Spokesman Scott Carr says the street value of the cocaine equals nearly nine-tenths of the Coast Guard's entire annual budget. /// FIRST CARR ACT /// The overall street value of the cocaine seized by the Coast Guard is three-point-nine billion dollars. /// END ACT /// Two-thirds of the narcotics were seized in waters stretching from the Caribbean to the Carolinas. Spokesman Scott Carr says the Coast Guard has benefited from the introduction of armed helicopters designed to stop small, high-speed smuggling vessels that ferry cocaine and other drugs to U-S shores. /// SECOND CARR ACT /// The armed helicopters are specifically designed to target drug-smuggling vessels, specifically the "go fast" vessels. In the past they could just outrun our boats and we weren't able to stop them. With the armed helicopters, we now have the ability to fire warning shots from our helicopters across the bow of the (smuggling) vessel. /// END ACT /// If the "go fast" boats ignore the warning shots, the Coast Guard's helicopters come equipped with 50- calibre rifles that can be fired at the vessels' engines to disable them. The higher level of narcotics seizures can be seen as both a good and a bad sign in the overall war on drugs. On the one hand, it shows the effectiveness of Coast Guard interdiction efforts. But it also reveals that Caribbean waters are virtually awash in smuggling activity. U-S anti-narcotics officials say that over the last 18-months, cocaine production has risen dramatically in Colombia - the world's largest producer of the drug. Increased smuggling activity in the Caribbean can be seen as a direct result of the enormous coca leaf crops being harvested in Colombia. /// REST OPTIONAL /// Coast Guard spokesman Steve Carr describes anti- narcotics operations as a grand "cat-and-mouse" game. The Coast Guard continually reviews and adjusts its strategies so as to foil the plans of drug smugglers. The smugglers, in turn, alter their tactics to avoid detection and capture - which prompts new initiatives on the part of the Coast Guard. Mr. Carr says drug trafficking organizations are well aware of the success the U-S Coast Guard has enjoyed over the last 12 months, and are surely plotting new ways to ship their illegal cargo. (Signed NEB/MCB/ENE/gm 06-Oct-1999 16:15 PM EDT (06-Oct-1999 2015 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .