By Maye Primera in Miami From El Pais

Smugglers being forced to use alternative routes following crackdowns in Mexico

At midnight on April 9, a US Customs border patrol discovered a 1.5-ton cocaine shipment on board a high-speed boat heading for the US territory of Puerto Rico. Following a hot pursuit, the seizure was made in Patillas, a municipality on the island’s southeast coast.

On March 31, a similar boat was stopped when it was trying to smuggle 1.77 tons of cocaine, which was headed for Dorado, another Puerto Rican municipality known for its golf and beach resorts.

These seizures are not uncommon. At least 16 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States from Colombia and Central America enters through the Caribbean. But there has been a sharp increase in the number of drug shipments over the past year.

“In the past three to five years, the amount of cocaine that is shipped through the Caribbean has increased by between five and 16 percent,” said Vito Salvatore Guarino, the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s special agent in charge in San Juan, Puerto Rico, during an interview with EL PAÍS.

“Years back, some 70 metric tons of drugs passed through the region, but today that figure stands between 90 and 100 metric tons per year,” he said.

They travel at night in secret boats headed for Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico”

During the 2013 fiscal year, which ended in October, US authorities made more than 1,500 arrests and confiscated as much as 28 metric tons of drugs in the Caribbean. But just during the first two months of the 2014 fiscal year, authorities have seized nine metric tons and arrested 183 persons in connection with trafficking.

The routes for most smugglers are the same. “They travel at night in secret boats headed for Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Others use the eastern Caribbean, but the majority of the cocaine comes through Dominican Republic,” Guarino said.

The shipments are usually divided, with half of the drugs headed for Europe and the rest to the United States. In some cases, they make their entry with the help of corrupt local authorities.

On April 8, 2013, Dominican authorities extradited the former director of the country’s national drug control agency, Navy Admiral Francisco Hiraldo, to the United States, to face charges that he allegedly helped protect traffickers in exchange for a $100,000 payoff for each shipment.

The shipments are usually divided with half of the drugs headed for Europe and the rest to the United States

Jamaica – which for years has been the number-one supplier of marijuana for US consumers – has now become a transshipment point for drugs coming out of Central America. In the US State Department’s International Drug Control Strategy Report, released in March, authorities point out that some drug-trafficking organizations exchange Jamaican marijuana for cocaine.

“Drugs leaving Jamaica are bound for the United States, Canada and other Caribbean nations. However, marijuana and cocaine are also trafficked from Jamaica into the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands,” the report states.

US and Caribbean authorities have said they expected this upward trend in the region as a result of the ongoing anti-drug operations in Mexico and Central America, but this direction has caused concerns at the United Nations.

Washington has invested $200 million under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative to tackle the problem

Yury Fedotov, director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), warned in a report on transnational organized crime released in 2012 that the new routes through the Caribbean should be considered “a threat” to regional stability.

Earlier this month, Fedotov announced in New York the creation of a new program to help the Caribbean Community (Caricom) deal with this problem. Some $11.7 billion will be destined for a two year period, with most of the financing coming from the European Union, United States and Canada.

During a lightning visit to the region last year, US Vice President Joe Biden discussed the issue with 15 leaders of the Caricom nations in Trinidad, and reminded them that Washington has invested $200 million since 2010 under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative for them to help tackle this problem.

However, some crime experts in the region complain that Washington refuses to share security intelligence information on its own anti-drug operations with the governments of the islands.

IMAGE: The amount of drugs smuggled through the Caribbean has increased over the last two years. / AFP

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Related story:

Caribbean Border Interagency Group Authorities seize $37 Million worth of cocaine in the Caribbean Sea

MAY 06 (SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico) — U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Puerto Rico Police seized nearly 1,280 kilograms of cocaine, with an estimated wholesale value of $37 million, and apprehended two Dominican Republic nationals during an at-sea interdiction in the Caribbean Sea Wednesday, announced United States Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez. U.S. Magistrate Judge Camille L. Vélez-Rivé authorized a complaint charging Santos Lantigua-Nuñez and Efrain Cedano-Díaz with conspiracy to possess a controlled substance on board a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

CBIG members announce seizure of $37 million worth of cocaine. (L-R) USCG Captain Drew Pearson, AUSA Jose Ruiz, DEA SAC Vito Guarino (speaking behind the podium), PRPD Lt Col Luis Colon, Chief BPA Ramiro Cerrillos and CBP Port Director Juan Hurtado during a news conference at USCG Sector San Juan.          Over one ton of cocaine seized as the result of the Caribbean Border Interagency Group’s Operation Caribbean Guard and the Coast Guard’s Operation Unified Resolve interdiction operation.

The interdiction is the result of the Caribbean Border Interagency Group’s Operation Caribbean Guard and the Coast Guard’s Operation Unified Resolve.

During a routine Caribbean patrol, the crew of a Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry Maritime Patrol Aircraft from Air Station Miami detected a 35-foot go-fast vessel with two outboard engines traveling northbound without any navigation lights, south of Puerto Rico Tuesday night.

Coast Guard Sector San Juan watchstanders diverted the Coast Guard Cutters Drummond and Farallon and launched an armed Coast Guard helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen to interdict the suspect vessel. Customs and Border Protection Caribbean Air and Marine Branch and the Puerto Rico Police Joint Forces of Rapid action were also notified and launched marine units to interdict the suspect vessel.

The Coast Guard HC-144 maintained near-constant surveillance of the go-fast vessel as the armed Coast Guard helicopter arrived on scene and fired warning shots in an attempt to get the suspects to stop. When the vessel did not comply, the helicopter crew fired at and disabled one of the vessel’s engines, prompting the suspected smugglers to jettison the contraband overboard. A Customs and Border Protection marine unit along with marine units from Puerto Rico Police then intercepted the vessel, and a law enforcement team from the Coast Guard Cutter Drummond embarked the suspects.

Law enforcement personnel including crewmembers onboard the Coast Guard Cutters Drummond and Farallon were able to retrieve 45 bales of contraband jettisoned by the smugglers. Narcotics Identification Field Tests conducted by the law enforcement revealed positive results for the presence of cocaine.

“Once again the combined efforts of DEA, USCG, CPB and PRPD-FURA resulted in the seizure of millions of dollars’ worth of narcotics. Our message continues to be the same: we will detect and interdict drug smugglers attempting to flood our island with their poisonous cargo,” said Vito Salvatore Guarino, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Caribbean Division.

“Our multiagency partnerships in the region along with the continuous augmentation of Coast Guard air and surface assets sent to Puerto Rico to interdict major drug shipments at sea continues to pay off,” said Capt. Drew W. Pearson, Commander, Coast Guard Sector San Juan. “The airborne use of force expertly applied by the Coast Guard helicopter crew to stop this vessel should serve as a serious deterrent to smugglers to know they will be caught and brought to justice.”

“These arrests are a clear indication of the continued success of the Caribbean Corridor Strike Force” said Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. “This is just another example of the fine work our State and Federal law enforcement partners accomplish every day. With the continued collaboration and assistance of our law enforcement partners, we will continue our efforts to bring drug smuggling organizations to justice.”

“CBP air and marine assets continuously patrol the coastal borders of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands to leverage the collective efforts of all federal and state law enforcement partners to intercept any smuggling venture,” stated Johnny Morales, Director of CBP Air Operations.

During interviews with the suspects, it was discovered the third person jumped overboard to avoid apprehension as law enforcement units approached the disabled vessel. The Coast Guard conducted a large scale search for the missing person that lasted 34 hours and covered 546 square miles before suspending search efforts for the missing smuggler Thursday night. While searching for the missing person Coast Guard active duty and Auxiliary crews located and subsequently recovered 45 bales of contraband from the water, which later tested positive for cocaine.

The two apprehended smugglers, the seized cocaine, and the suspect’s vessel were transferred in Ponce, Puerto Rico, to Customs and Border Protection officers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents for processing and prosecution.

The Coast Guard Cutters Farallon and Drummond are 110-foot patrol boats home ported in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Kelley Tiffany.

The defendants are facing terms of imprisonment from 10 years to life for the narcotics violations. Criminal complaints are only charges and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.