Transit Zone Interdiction Operations
ONDCP FACT SHEET
Overview
Transit Zone interdiction is a team effort that relies on the successful execution of several steps in an interdiction continuum, including the collection and dissemination of actionable intelligence, the detection and monitoring of suspect vessels, and the physical interdiction of those vessels. Drugs coming to the United States from South America pass through a 42 million square-mile transit zone, roughly twice the size of the continental U.S. This zone includes the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern Pacific Ocean. In patrolling this vast area, U.S. forces closely coordinate their operations with the interdiction forces of a number of nations in order to deny drug traffickers the use of air and maritime routes.
The amount of cocaine moving through the Western Hemisphere Transit Zone (WHTZ) in calendar year 2007 increased from 1,022 metric tons in CY 2006 to 1,421 metric tons in CY 2007. Removals of cocaine loads in transit by interdiction forces increased from 256 metric tons to an all-time record high of 316 metric tons. Despite this notable increase, the removal rate, i.e., removals as a percentage of total movement, remains in the low twenty percent range. This is well below the national target of 40 percent, suggesting that there remains much room for continued improvement. Sixty-eight percent of the cocaine moving through the transit zone transited the Eastern Pacific in 2007; twenty-one percent passed through the Western Caribbean; ten percent was smuggled through the Central Caribbean and less than one percent was shipped directly to the United States.
Typically, in the eastern Pacific, fishing vessels carrying multi-ton loads of cocaine depart Colombian and Ecuadorian Pacific coast ports for delivery points along the Central American or Mexican coast. In the Caribbean, high-speed "go-fast" vessels, hauling as much as two metric tons of cocaine at a time, leave Colombia 's north coast for delivery points in the eastern Caribbean, or hug the Central American coastline in their track north to points along the Central American and Mexican coastlines. A fishing vessel operation can last up to six weeks, while go-fast operations run normally one or two days. The number of go-fast boats involved in smuggling has increased substantially in the past few years. Such craft are small, very fast, nearly invisible to radar, and difficult to see in daylight. To counter the go-fast threat, the Coast Guard has acquired new equipment and developed capabilities to use armed helicopters, over-the-horizon cutter boats, and non-lethal vessel-stopping technologies.
In response, drug traffickers are attempting to use new and innovative methods to transport drugs to the United States, including the development and enhancement of low-profile and semi-submersible vessels. The production quality and operational capabilities of these vessels steadily improved, allowing traffickers to move more product with greater stealth. The distances these vessels can travel without support are allowing traffickers greater flexibility when planning potential drop locations.
What Is Being Done
The principal interdiction arm in the transit zone is Joint Inter-Agency Task Force South (JIATF-South), a national asset located in Key West, Florida, A subordinate of U.S. Southern Command in Miami, Florida, JIATF-South is composed primarily of representatives from the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Justice. Participating agencies include the DEA, FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air Force, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Office of Naval intelligence (ONI). Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands provide ships, aircraft, and liaison officers. Several Latin American countries have also assigned liaison officers to JIATF-South.
A typical JIATF-South interdiction operation involves actionable intelligence on the location of a suspect drug trafficking vessel. This is combined with detection and monitoring by CBP, Defense Department, U.S. Coast Guard, or partner nation maritime patrol aircraft (MPA). The MPA will then vector in a nearby U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, or allied surface asset, which, with assistance from a U.S. coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET), seize the illicit cargo and arrest the crew.
While removals in the open-ocean portion of the transit zone decreased somewhat in 2007 after several record-setting years, contributions made by partner nations along their coastlines and within their borders more than made up the difference. Documented removals by Mexico increased 479 percent; from 9.6 metric tons in 2006 to 46 metric tons in 2007, to include the largest single seizure event in history, when 23 metric tons of cocaine were seized in a container in the port of Manzanillo in November 2007. Good diplomatic relations and longstanding bilateral operational agreements facilitated increased removals throughout Central American countries as well, as a shift from open-ocean to littoral routes provided these countries more interdiction opportunities.
The pace of seizures in the transit zone remains intense, and in 2007 these seizures combined with a number of different factors to result in a historic decrease in the availability of cocaine across the United States. The weakness of the dollar against the Euro, along with increasing European demand, made European markets more appealing to cocaine traffickers than in the past. Additionally, record eradication in the Source Zone and record removals in the Transit Zone, when combined with unprecedented intra-cartel violence within Mexico and historic pressure brought to bear on drug trafficking organizations by the Calderon Administration, all disrupted the cocaine market in a demonstrative way. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration's System to Retrieve Information on Drug Evidence (STRIDE), the average price per pure gram of cocaine in the United States increased by 44 percent; from $95.35 per pure gram in January to $136.93 per pure gram in September of 2007. This increase in price was accompanied by a 15 percent reduction in the average purity of cocaine.
Looking Ahead
Record-level seizures are hurting traffickers, eroding their profits, and destabilizing the transportation sector of the cocaine industry. However, as long as fishing vessel and go-fast drug deliveries are still getting past our transit zone defenses, more work needs to be done. As the traffickers modify their strategy, we will continue to adapt and forge new initiatives that will have an even greater impact on the illicit drug market. We will also continue working with our partner nations in the Transit and Source zones to build their own capacity to detect, monitor, and interdict narcotics.
Related Resources:
For more information on interdiction operations, consult the International Drug Control Strategy Report (INCSR), issued by the State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). It is located on the State Department website at http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2008/. Other relevant web sites include the DEA (http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/), Department of Homeland Security (http://www.dhs.gov), U.S. Coast Guard (http://www.uscg.mil/), ICE (http://www.ice.gov), and CBP (http://www.cbp.gov.) For a look at the U.S. military's role in stemming the flow of drugs into America, consult the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-South) web site at http://www.jiatfs.southcom.mil/.
