Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement
The Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for maritime drug interdiction
and shares lead responsibility for air interdiction with the U.S.
Customs Service. As such, it is a key player in combating the flow
of illegal drugs to the United States.
The Coast Guard's mission is to reduce the supply of drugs from
the source by denying smugglers the use of air and maritime routes
in the Transit Zone, a six million square mile area, including the
Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Pacific. In meeting the challenge
of patrolling this vast area, the Coast Guard coordinates closely
with other federal agencies and countries within the region to disrupt
and deter the flow of illegal drugs. In addition to deterrence,
Coast Guard drug interdiction accounts for nearly 56% of all U.S.
government seizures of cocaine each year. For Fiscal Year 2000 the
rate of Coast Guard cocaine seizures alone had an estimated import
value of approximately $4.4 billion. Counter-drug smuggling mission
In 1870, Chinese immigrants became the first known drug smugglers
when they began smuggling opium in merchant ship cargoes and baggage.
Since then, drug smuggling by maritime routes has grown in size,
scope and sophistication as demand skyrocketed. For example, around
the turn of the century, when cocaine use was first in vogue, a
relatively limited amount of the population was directly affected
by the problems of cocaine abuse.
But in later years, as the drugs of choice shifted from cocaine
to heroin and opium, then later to marijuana and back to cocaine,
drug smugglers began utilizing maritime sea and air routes to transport
larger shipments of drugs to the U.S. For nearly a century, the
maritime drug smuggling business slowly evolved while the Coast
Guard focused its attention on the major events of the day, including
World War I, Prohibition, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars.
During the 1920's Congress tasked the Coast Guard with enforcing
the 18th Amendment, necessitating a dramatic increase in resources
and funding for the Coast Guard. The massive effort needed to curtail
the substantial level of alcohol smuggling required the single largest
appropriation for personnel and new ship construction in its history.
In addition, the Navy transferred more than 20 WWI-era destroyers
and minesweepers for conversion to the Coast Guard's battle with
rum-runners, which ended with the 21st Amendment repealing Prohibition.
The Coast Guard's unique expertise in countering smuggling operations
also came into play during the Vietnam War, when the Navy asked
for our expertise to support "Operation Market Time,"
an intensive multi-year campaign to stop the Communist flow of arms
and supplies by sea. The Coast Guard utilized its expertise in stopping
smuggling while facilitating legitimate commerce. Our patrol boats
and cutters patrolled 1,200 miles of coastline and had to contend
with more than 60,000 junks and sampans. The Coast Guard and Navy's
success in "Operation Market Time," substantially reduced
the amount of at- sea smuggling, forcing the Viet Cong to use the
longer and more difficult land route of the infamous Ho Chi Minh
Shortly after the war in Vietnam ended, the Coast Guard found itself
fighting another war a war that is still going on today with
a determined, well-financed opposition. In the early 1970's maritime
drug smuggling became a much more significant problem for the Coast
Guard and we began making seizures while engaged in other operations,
like Search and Rescue and Fisheries Law Enforcement. 1973 saw a
dramatic increase in smuggling attempts and the Coast Guard conducted
its first Coast Guard-controlled seizure on March 8, 1973, when
the USCGC Dauntless boarded a 38-foot sports fisherman, the Big
L and arrested its master and crew, with more than a ton of marijuana
on board. Since then, the Coast Guard has seized countless tons
of marijuana and cocaine.
Since Fiscal Year 1997 to present, the Coast Guard has seized 540,476
pounds of cocaine and 270,060 pounds of marijuana.