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The US Coast Guard raided a submarine in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, containing more than 17,000 pounds of cocaine. The video proving the raid was posted on July 11th, showing a Coast Guard officer “surf” on the submarine.
The event took place on June 18th.
In the filmed incident, the Coast Guard was able to detect the vessel with an aircraft, who relayed the information to members on the ground. Once they had an idea of where the vessel was, the guard launched two small boats to creep up on the smugglers, and were eventually able to board without detection.
There were five people on the vessel, who were then turned over the US Drug Enforcement Administration for prosecution.
This drug bust was the first time the US Coast Guard used a new type of vessel on a counter-drug patrol, Lt. Commander Stephen Brickey the second in command of the Coast Guard said.
In the last four years, there’s been an increase in drug cartels from Central and South America using these semi-submersible vessels, Brickey said.
These vessels are relatively rare. They’re expensive to build, and cartels have to build them deep in jungles to avoid detection. Once they’re filled with drugs and deployed, Brickey said they’re almost impossible to detect without prior intelligence or an aircraft.
“They blend in,” he said. “Most of the vessel is underwater, so it’s hard to pick out. They’re painted blue. They match the water.”
According to Coast Guard data, only 11% of vessels that pass through the eastern Pacific Ocean are stopped.
Part of the problem is that 70 percent of Coast Guard’s fleet is over 50 years old — so they’re slow and require a lot of maintenance before they can be deployed.
“They’re not really effective enough to meet this new threat,” Brickey said.
Another part is that the Coast Guard patrols is that the area they need to protect is massive, while the means to do it with are inadequate for the insurmountable task.
The US’ war on drugs, is a fundamentally flawed approach, it either targets specific shipments, or its leaders. And yes, one could argue that a disease should be treated from its cause, and not simply its symptoms. The US allegedlly does both, and there appears to be very little progress made.
Since in 2016, Mexican authorities arrested Joaquín Guzmán Loera – el Chapo, that was considered a massive blow to the Sinaloa cartel. But, in all actuality, nothing of the sort happened – drugs were still being transferred illegally and sold in the US and there was little change.
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In February 2019, el Chapo was found guilty of 10 charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering, by a federal court in New York.
On July 17th, he was sentenced to life. He was sentenced to an additional 30 years were for unlawful uses of firearms. He was also ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture.
Guzmán’s lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman announced plans to appeal against the verdict.
He argued that the trial had not been conducted fairly and claimed that jurors were influenced by media coverage.
“It was a show trial,” he said.
El Chapo, too, provided a comment before the sentencing, through a translator.
He said in the Brooklyn courtroom his confinement in the US had amounted to “torture” and said he had received an unfair trial.
One thing is certain, treating him unfairly would simply lead to one thing – the Mexican cartels would show even more animosity along the US border.
Furthermore, his arrest – dubbed the biggest since Pablo Escobar’s – showed that despite him gone, Mexico and the US weren’t magically rid of drugs.
Rather than reducing the levels of violence and trafficking in Mexico, that approach – the so-called kingpin strategy, employed by Mexico and the US has rather allowed for other forms of crime to prosper, smaller organizations and not the larger cartels, which are much more difficult to counter, simply due to their sheer number.
As Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, el Chapo’s longtime partner, said in 2010 in a rare interview with the Mexican news magazine El Proceso, the problem of narcos isn’t going away:
“As soon as capos are locked up, killed or extradited, their replacements are already around.”
To further substantiate the entire hopelessness of the current state of the drug war, following is the most recent incident along the US-Mexico border:
On July 15th, the Juarez drug cartel detonated a car bomb on the streets of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, less than a mile from the U.S. border. The use of car bombs represents a new tactic in the escalating street violence between drug cartels and Mexican authorities, much of it in the cities that hug the US border. The attack killed 4 and wounded 20.
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On the very next day, drug gangs in another city – Nuevo Laredo, also along the Mexico-Texas border saw a two-hour gun battle between two drug gangs.
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Mexican federal police entered the fray against both gangs and eventually prevailed. The two gangs used SUVs, trucks and stolen vehicles in the battle, and used the parked vehicles as firing positions. One of the gangs in the Nuevo Laredo gun battle used a stolen truck to block the street.
If the situation appears to strongly resemble the situation in Syria, or in another warzone filled with competing militant groups, that’s because it is approximately the same thing.
The Americans like blaming others for their crimes, but the reality is the USA is a massive consumer of drugs and someone will always supply the addicts. It’s like blaming prostitutes for the service they provide and pretending the clients are innocent. Government could ask why so many Americans need so many drugs, but it’s easier to blame a foreigner than looking into the decay that is sweeping American society.
There’s a lot more money to be made going after drugs abroad than at home.
If they went after domestic drug dealers they would need undercover cops and maybe some wiretap and surveillance resources whereas if they go after the smugglers and producers they need ships and aircraft fitted out elint suits and radars plus they kit out entire police forces and militias in countries like Columbia and Mexico with full tactical gear.
Drugs are also used as a means of civil control at home. White, Black and Latino communities all use drugs but the Black and Latino communities get caught they go to jail whereas if a white boy gets caught he gets let off with rehab …. which is often paid for in their benefit packages.
The CIA has been caught dealing drugs to fund their black ops programs. I would be very surprised if this was the only US agency being funded by the drug trade. Imagine if you were able to control the supply of drugs getting into the country creating scarcity at times to drive the price up and deciding just who’s shipments get through. You could make a fortune without even touching the stuff and the taxpayer’s funding it all.
100% correct! Excellent commentary!
CIA is making huge money on drug trafficking for their black ops – of course it will not stop..
And dea
True and by the way same in Afghanistan. My son saw it all in the British Army. Guessed the game was drugs and black ops funding as it was for the CIA in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
I remember reading a newspaper which have a map from the dea and this map showed my province was in control by cartel de Sinaloa, i was upset because was a false statement, the evil Zetas were in control of my province! Of course the cártel del Golfo and its children Zetas had been using a hit and run tactics s(and many cartels copies this) early 2000’s and the goverment commitment Is very unsatisfactory. Yes there Is corruption (politicians love money), fear and impotency (in the middle of the army) and unfortunately we have used to live in this mess
USA can release this billionaire to plough back to the poor people of Mexico.Atleas he was helping the poor USA loot Afganistan opium and Colombian drugs who ever deals with.drugs is USA leaders enemies.
everywhere the united states goes chaos and death follows.
This has been the case since 1898 and the Colonial Wars with Spain in Cuba and the Philippines. Since then the death rate has escalated by an order of magnitude!
this mess happened because the goverment of the united states took down the oldschool drug dealers like chapo they didnt mess with families or do any kidnappings or extortion instead the u.s. and mexican goverment gave a blind eye to new formed organizations like the zetas who did kidnapping and extortion and counterfit busineess and even supported them.