Pubdate: Tue, 08 Apr 2014
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Page: A1
Copyright: 2014 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs.
Author: William E. Gibson

COPS HOT ON TRAIL AS DRUG RUNNING REVIVES IN FLORIDA

WASHINGTON - Under cover of night, speedboats sneak into Florida coves
and inlets, hauling bundles of marijuana and cocaine.

Drugs wash up on shore. Radar aircraft hover, searching for smugglers.
And beachgoers stumble onto abandoned bundles of contraband.

Like a flashback to the cocaine-cowboy days of the 1980s, drug running
is making a comeback in Florida, and federal authorities are
harnessing new technology to try to catch the smugglers.

Infighting among drug cartels and intense enforcement in Mexico have
prompted traffickers to shift some smuggling routes from the Southwest
border to the Caribbean, federal investigators say. The increased
traffic has revived the speedboat runs from the Bahamas to South
Florida and supplied a pipeline of illegal drugs from Puerto Rico to
Central Florida.

"Some old [smuggling] routes appear to be reviving, including ones
that lead directly into Florida," Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, commander
of the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, warned a Senate panel last
month.

Kelly cited "a 483 percent increase in cocaine washing up on Florida's
shores in 2013 compared to 2012," based on figures from the U.S.
Customs and Border Protection agency.

The washed-up drugs include 112 pounds of marijuana and 77 pounds of
cocaine - abandoned contraband that was found along the coast and
reported to authorities during the past fiscal year, according to
federal officials.

Enforcement agencies say the shifting routes provide a steady flow of
illegal shipments into Florida, though not nearly on the same scale as
the drug trade of the1980s.

In that era, dealers brazenly brought baskets full of cash into Miami
banks to launder their proceeds. South Florida was the main pathway
for cocaine shipments from Colombia, and gunbattles over control of
its distribution made Miami the murder capital of the nation in 1984.

But an enforcement crackdown - popularized by the TV show "Miami Vice"
- - disrupted the trade and pushed smuggling routes elsewhere, mostly
west to California and along the Mexican border.

Now that enforcement has intensified in the West, some of that trade
has moved east again to Central America and the Caribbean, enforcement
officials say. They are expanding enforcement abroad, in cooperation
with Colombia and other nations, to try to stop the flow before it
gets near Florida.

In Florida, marijuana seizures more than doubled and cocaine seizures
nearly tripled in fiscal 2013 compared with the previous year,
reaching 26,823 pounds of marijuana and 12,876 pounds of cocaine,
according to customs officials.

But Kelly estimated that 70 percent to 80 percent of contraband still
gets through the enforcement net. Most of it goes to Europe, West
Africa and cities along the Eastern Seaboard, and some of it ends up
in Florida.

A State Department report last month said smugglers bring large
shipments from Colombia to the Bahamas and other islands and split
them into smaller loads.

"Traffickers move cocaine through the Bahamas via 'go-fast' boats,
small commercial freighters, maritime shipping containers and small
aircraft," the report stated. "Small sport fishing vessels and
pleasure craft move cocaine from the Bahamas to Florida by blending in
with legitimate traffic that transit these areas."

For several years, smugglers also have been stuffing drugs into
submarines or semi-submersible vessels that ride low in the water to
avoid detection. Several have been seized along the Florida coast.

"The shift went from airdrops to the go-fast boats," said Vito
Guarino, special agent in charge of the Caribbean Division of the Drug
Enforcement Administration. "It's usually 48 hours. They don't go
direct. They'll go for about 12 hours at night. Then they get out a
blue tarp [to cover the boat], and you'll never be able to see it.
They'll rest during the day, and the second night will take them in."

He said Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have become important
points for relaying drugs from South America to Central Florida. "You
are looking at double the flow through the Caribbean over the past
five years," Guarino said.

To spot this traffic, customs officers are patrolling offshore areas
with turboprop planes loaded with radar equipment and cameras as well
as with Blackhawk helicopters based in Miami and Jacksonville. And a
Predator drone - an unmanned aircraft with radar designed for maritime
surveillance - hovers over the Caribbean to help detect illegal shipments.

The enforcement net has produced major seizures in the Caribbean,
including 1,400 pounds of cocaine worth $17 million from a smuggler
go-fast boat in January 2013; 2,200 pounds of cocaine worth $27
million from a fishing vessel last April; and $527 million worth of
cocaine from two speedboats last June.

Much of the contraband produced in South America now goes to Africa
and Europe as cocaine use declines in this country and the drug
cartels become more sophisticated international networks.

"Gone are the days of the cocaine cowboys," Kelly told the Senate
Armed Services Committee. "Instead, we and our partners are confronted
with cocaine corporations that have franchises all over the world,
including 1,200 American cities."  
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D