CG: Teamwork, tactics led to record drug haul

[unhappycamper]

CG: Teamwork, tactics led to record drug haul
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Dec 6, 2007 18:32:20 EST

New technology, more aggressive tactics and a climate of “jointness” made fiscal 2007 a record-setting year for marine drug interdiction, top homeland security officials said Dec. 6 at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The Coast Guard and its U.S. and international partners seized 350,000 pounds of cocaine, worth about $4.7 billion, from re-purposed commercial ships, “go-fast” speedboats and even minisubmarines in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Drug-control officials claimed that the results were visible throughout the U.S; tightened border and maritime enforcement, they said, has meant that the average quality of street cocaine has declined while its average price has spiked in dozens of U.S. cities, although that was difficult to independently verify.

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen, who pointed out that the street value of the drugs seized in 2007 equals almost half the Coast Guard’s yearly budget, said he was pleased “all that poison would not end up in our schools and on our streets and threaten our families.”

The 2007 haul is the latest in a succession of years for which the Coast Guard has announced record drug seizures, all because of a level of federal and international cooperation that Allen called the closest he’s seen in his career. Much credit goes to the contributions of the U.S. Navy and allied Central and South American maritime forces, Allen said, because about half the maritime drug seizures in fiscal 2007 were made by U.S. frigates or international ships carrying Coast Guard enforcement teams.

It was unclear how much of the total amount of cocaine destined for the U.S. in 2007 was intercepted in the maritime seizures.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/12/coastguard_record_drugseizures_071206w/



uhc comment: How the fuck can the amount of cocaine intercepted in maritime seizures be 'unclear'?