By Lizette Alvarez From New York Times

SAN JUAN, P.R. — With its navigation lights off, the 35-foot speedboat raced north toward Puerto Rico one night this month, its two large engines at full throttle. Above, a Coast Guard helicopter chased it and then let loose a few warning shots. But the boat roared ahead. Then, thwack, the crew on the copter shot out one of engines.

By dawn, the frenzied scramble had come to an end and 1,280 kilograms of cocaine — worth about $37 million on the street — were in federal hands, much of it scooped from the Caribbean Sea, where the smugglers had tossed the bales. An interagency task force of federal law enforcement, the Coast Guard and the Puerto Rico Police Department confiscated the drugs and arrested two men from the Dominican Republic. A third man had jumped overboard and was never found.

It was one in a string of increasingly common high-profile drug hauls and arrests playing out in and around Puerto Rico and nearby Caribbean islands, a trail mythologized in the cocaine cowboy era of the 1980s, when a seemingly endless supply of drugs flowed from this region into Miami. Seizures of cocaine, the most profitable drug for smugglers, have nearly quadrupled here since 2011. Over the past three years, the seizures of cocaine headed for the United States from South America have risen by as much as 20 percent, according to federal drug enforcement officials.

Uptick in Cocaine Seizures

Seizures of cocaine headed for the United States have nearly quadrupled in recent years, with increasing amounts coming from South America through Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands. But Mexico and Central America remain the most popular funnel of drugs. See Source: Drug Enforcement Administration

The sharp increase in the drug trade here is a sign of shifting patterns by traffickers in Colombia and Venezuela who are looking for new ways to import cocaine into the United States. The shift comes amid continuing violence among drug gangs along the United States-Mexico border, where most drugs continue to enter the United States, and a law enforcement crackdown that has made smuggling there an increasingly risky proposition. Seizures and arrests in and around the island continue to mount.

In April, a boat made landfall in Puerto Rico. Three passengers fled, but agents found 1,530 kilograms of cocaine on the boat. Days earlier, another boatload, this one with 1,774 kilograms of cocaine, was intercepted.

Much of the cocaine being smuggled here now bypasses other surrounding islands and is taken directly from South America to Puerto Rico, a prized transshipment hub because it is on United States land. Once inside, packages that conceal drugs do not need to clear customs. The overwhelming majority of drugs that enter Puerto Rico end up in the United States mainland, passing through airports, seaports or mail parcels, said Vito S. Guarino, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s special agent in charge in San Juan and a veteran of the 1980 Caribbean-Miami drug wars.

“You are seeing 1,200 keys, 1,000 keys,” said Mr. Guarino, a former police officer who could have easily stepped out of an Elmore Leonard novel, using slang for kilograms. “That’s an increase from 5 to 15 and 20 percent. Wow. What does that say? It increased fourfold. It also shows the confidence they have to get the dope in. They send 1,200 keys, and they still have a good shot to get it in.”

The cocaine that remains here is fought over by gangs, a chief contributor to Puerto Rico’s sky-high murder rate. In 2011, the island logged 1,135 murders, roughly six times the national average. The murder rate, while still high, has declined as federal and state law enforcement agents have used new policing strategies and gotten more resources to crack down on the violence. Many Puerto Ricans say they still feel under siege and destabilized by the violence, although they are encouraged by the dip in crime.

Federal officials said there was no question smugglers are becoming more active in the area. The sheer size of the boatloads being seized is an indication that the smugglers believe the odds are with them, officials say.

In 2011, 5,820 kilograms of cocaine were seized in the region by Operation Caribbean Guard, a maritime interagency task force made up of the Coast Guard, and federal and local agencies. So far this year, the number is 17,510 kilograms, according to the latest task force figures. Figures from the Drug Enforcement Administration show similar jumps.

Most of the cocaine ends up along the Eastern Seaboard in cities like Boston; Newark; New York; Orlando, Fla.; and Philadelphia. Only a small amount is being intercepted, military officials add.

The recent spike in drug trafficking has proved so worrisome that Gen. John F. Kelly, the leader of the Southern Command, warned the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing in March that the government was not doing enough to stop smugglers between South America and the Caribbean. He told senators that his forces, hit hard by budget cuts and a reshuffling of priorities, are ill-equipped to handle the increase in trafficking.

The general told the panel that the Coast Guard and law enforcement are failing to capture an estimated 80 percent of the drugs, almost all of it cocaine, that are flowing through the Caribbean Sea to the United States. He blamed a scarcity of resources, saying the government lacks enough aircraft and vessels to spot and stop smugglers.

“I simply sit and watch it go by,” General Kelly told the Senate panel, adding that he receives “about 5 percent” of the resources he needs.

Pedro R. Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress, said he has complained for several years to federal officials about the jump in smuggling.

“There has been no overall strategy in the fight against drug trafficking in this region,” he said. “And it has been getting worse.”

Unlike in the 1980s, today the cocaine leaving South America is not coming by plane but by so-called go-fast speedboats with several huge engines. Often they travel to the Dominican Republic first. More and more, though, they go directly to the shores of Puerto Rico, officials say. The odds of escaping detection in the vast Caribbean Sea are significantly better than along the highly scrutinized United States-Mexico land border.

With the exception of the powerful boats and their GPS units, the smuggling is decidedly low-tech. Smugglers leave after nightfall, often from the shores along the porous border between Colombia and Venezuela. They throw a blue tarp over the boat to conceal the craft during the day, Mr. Guarino said. They sometimes transfer the shipments to smaller craft, which pull up along Puerto Rico’s considerable shore line and offload.

“Tarps and go-fast boats — they don’t have to alter that method for now,” he said. Sometimes, they send a decoy, he said. Four boats go out, one is caught, and the rest make it, he added.

From land, they stash the drugs, with the bulk going to the mainland by mail, suitcase or cargo. On May 20, officials arrested 24 people on charges of trying to smuggle cocaine out in DVD players, suitcases and toys — the inside of a Lite-Brite was a favorite. Airport workers also have been arrested in the past.

Despite the shortage of resources, federal law enforcement agencies and the Puerto Rico Police Department have doubled their efforts. They have formed task forces that facilitate a team approach both at sea and on land.

Puerto Rico units are getting more outside help, equipment and staff. The police are adding helicopters. A Puerto Rico radar unit, Aerostat, which was battered in 2011 by a storm, is working again. The Coast Guard has gotten more help, too, and next year will receive six new fast-response cutters to replace an aging fleet, said Capt. Drew W. Pearson, the San Juan sector Coast Guard commander. In addition, 11 federal agencies expect to finish an antidrug strategy next year, Mr. Pierluisi said.

The United States attorney’s office also has made a dent. The island’s constitution entitles everyone to bail, which allows drug dealers to quickly make bond and disappear. In late 2011, the prosecutor’s office began using its power to arrest some of the dealers on federal weapons charges, making it far more difficult for them to get bond.

The program now encompasses nearly the entire island, said Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, the United States attorney for Puerto Rico. The key, though, she said, is keeping drug smugglers out of Puerto Rico, off United States soil.

All too often, she said, “When you are here, you are home free.”

PHOTOS:

Vito S. Guarino, who works for the D.E.A. in San Juan, P.R., says smugglers have shown increased confidence. Credit Dennis Rivera for The New York Times

A vehicle was inspected by United States Drug Enforcement Administration agents during a raid in Puerto Rico in March 2013. Credit Dennis Rivera

For more on this story go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/us/in-puerto-rico-cocaine-gains-access-to-us.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=0

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