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Subscribe to RSSDrug smugglers are now moving their product across the ocean in the dark of night, coming ashore in Southern California, and showing no signs of backing down. NBC's Mark Potter reports.
MALIBU, CALIF. -- On a starry night in the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean north of Los Angeles, a two-man California National Guard special forces surveillance team sets up a sophisticated night scope. Their mission is to search the horizon and the waters below for an increasing number of Mexican drug traffickers offloading multi-ton loads of marijuana--and sometimes illegal immigrants--on remote U.S. beaches.
"These service members are the eyes and ears of federal law enforcement here," said Lt. Kara Siepmann, of the Guard's National Drug program. When asked about what specifically they are looking for, one of the surveillance team members said, "We're looking for blacked out vessels and any suspicious activity we can find, any unusual boats coming through the area."
Used to smuggle drugs from Mexico, this panga boat was captured near Huntington Beach, Calif., in August 2011. The faces of the three men being arrested have been obscured at the request of the HSI.
The soldiers work quietly and in the dark, aware that the Mexican traffickers have their own spotters here watching out for U.S. law enforcement personnel. "They don't want to land where the National Guard or the Border Patrol are looking for them," said Siepmann.
Turning fishing boats into drug boats
In the last few years, law enforcement officials said they have seen a considerable spike in smugglers loading drugs or immigrants onto boats in Mexico's northern Baja Peninsula, then motoring north to offload their illegal cargo along a 300-mile-long stretch of California beaches, sometimes within sight of the many luxury homes on the coastline.
Courtesy of HSI/ICE
Used to smuggle drugs from Mexico, this panga boat was found in California's Ventura County in January 2012.
Related: Debate rages over Mexico 'spillover violence' in U.S.
Federal agents said this is the latest smuggling technique employed by Mexico's notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, headed by that country's most-wanted criminal, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The boats are small, open-hulled commercial fishing boats called pangas, which are commonly found in the inshore waters of Mexico and Central America.
With their low profiles, the pangas are hard to spot in open water, but they can carry a large payload. Sometimes these 30- to 40-foot boats will have as many as four outboard engines, allowing them to outrun most vessels used by the authorities.
"The trend is pretty much going straight up," said Lt. Stewart Sibert, the captain of the US Coast Guard Cutter Halibut, which patrols in search of Mexican smugglers near the California coast.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Troy Matthews describes sea smuggling techniques and the dangers associated with it.
"The past few months have been very busy for us," he said. "We caught more drugs in these past two months than in the past two years."
According to arrest statistics reported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, there were 183 known "events" in fiscal year 2011 along the California coast involving the maritime smuggling of drugs or immigrants, up considerably from the previous three years. During the first seven months of this fiscal year, there have already been 113 such events as the numbers climb even faster than last year.
California National Guard members work on secret nighttime surveillance operations to locate smugglers on the seas, attempting to reach the California coast. They use night vision goggles and infrared technology that allows them to see for miles out to sea.
"We're seeing four and five tons of drugs come in per run and we're seeing dozens of runs. It's almost one or two per week at this point," said Sibert.
A dangerous trade heading north
Law enforcement officials have argued the rise in maritime smuggling is a direct result of their crackdown on smuggling operations along the U.S. land border with Mexico. As they first interdicted smuggling boats headed for beaches in southernmost California, near San Diego, they began to see the traffickers moving farther north to drop off their loads, which are then distributed across the country.
Related: Patrolling 'smugglers' alley' by air along the Rio Grande
U.S. Coast Guard LT. Stewart Sibert/Captain of the U.S.S. Halibut describes smuggling operations and how they bring drugs and migrants in to the country illegally.
"As we stop them in one area, they’re trying to go around us. We're sort of leapfrogging up the coastline," said Sibert. Recently, an abandoned panga and a hidden marijuana stash were found near San Simeon, Calif., more than 300 miles from the Mexican border.
"They go far out to sea to try to evade interdiction efforts along the border," said Claude Arnold, the special agent in charge for ICE Homeland Security Investigations. "They typically go 100 miles out or farther due west, and then they come north," to reach the U.S. coastline.
While the panga boats are considered relatively stable when used for fishing in calm inshore waters, officials said, they can be quite dangerous in rougher waters offshore, especially if they are overloaded with drugs or illegal immigrants. The boats rarely have adequate safety equipment and authorities speculate that many may have been lost at sea, along with their passengers.
Courtesy of HSI/ICE
Used to smuggle drugs from Mexico, this panga boat was found on California's Leo Carrillo Beach in August 2011.
"It's a direct indication of these criminal smuggling organizations' complete disregard for human life. They are driven by profit and nothing else," said Troy Matthews, of the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego. "You'll have somebody driving the ship who is not necessarily highly-trained. You'll have poorly maintained vehicles that will break down and subsequently they are loitering out at sea for days."
A border security threat
As they find more boats on the beaches and make more arrests, U.S. authorities are learning more about how the smuggling operation work, and the degree to which they are coordinated with land-based trafficking operations.
"We've seen some pangas that run directly up onto the beach and upload their cargo," said Sibert. "And then we've seen some that will come in and transfer their load to recreational boats that look less suspicious and try to run them directly into the marinas and yacht clubs."
Many times the panga boat operators will land at night on remote beaches near roads or a highway where they met by other members of the smuggling group. "There's usually an offloading team that will have a rental boxcar, U-Haul, or something of that nature to take the payload and transport it to a stash house where an organization begins the distribution process," said Arnold.
A particular concern voiced by many U.S. authorities is the potential national security threat these boats and smugglers represent. "They're just as willing to smuggle perhaps a weapon of mass destruction as they are a load of narcotics," warned Arnold. "And they're just as willing to smuggle a terrorist as people coming here to work."
In the middle of a presidential election year, there's a big debate between Democrats and Republicans, and law enforcement and ranchers, over how much violence from the Mexican drug war has spilled over into the United States, making it hard to get straight answers. NBC's Mark Potter reports.
To coordinate their interdiction efforts, federal, state and local law enforcement officials have formed a coastal-area task force. "As they adapt, we will adapt, and they'll continually try to find new ways to get contraband and people into the country, and we're going to be right there nipping at their heels," said Arnold.
Authorities conceded, however, that so far they are seeing no let-up in the Mexican maritime smuggling trade, and, in fact, are actually seeing bigger drug loads on boats now than in recent years.
"It's a huge challenge," said Matthews, from the U.S. Border Patrol. "It's an immense geographical area that we have to cover. There is not only single agency that can cover it by itself."
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I'm suprised that North Mexico I mean Calif. is doing anything about this !
IF the U.S. would really get tough and just sink the boats and people they find trying to come in illegally maybe they might think twice about sending in small boats or any boats. The U.S. i.e our president says we cant afford to build a divider but we can waste billions on solindra and other boondoggles. If we were to build "The Great Wall of America"it would stop drugs and illegals from coming into the U.S. and the best part would be the thousands upon thousands of people that would be back to work affording the U.S. government great amounts of tax dollars. Just think of all the companies that would be back hiring and start up companies. After it was build it would then become a tourist attraction. It could have sensors under it that would let us know if they the cartels were tunneling under it, the Border Patrol could have turrets on it every so often to keep an eye out for illegals trying to breach it.
Shoot first and ask questions later, that will send a message.
We all know that your suggestions of killing people for smuggling or illegally entering is not going to happen. The single thing that everyone with a real interest in returning us to normal relations with other countries is to elect Mitt Romney. He says, right now, that he will dry up the jobs, a really simple thing to do that is absolutely in the perview of the presidency, and watch illegal aliens self deport. Then it is just a matter of watching out for them scamming us from their home countrys. Obama has done well on foreign policy but he is a disaster domestically. We can't afford his amnasty.
I am out taking photos on these places, sometimes in the dead of night to capture the shore under moonlight. I have seen these boats off shore a couple of times. As well, I have been stopped and questioned MANY times by boarder control agents.
The first time was off Crystal Cove State Beach. I was wondering what BP was doing all the way that far north. Figured it out a month later when I was told by an officer they do go that far north.
Fire at will.
It is time to get this question put on the National Ballot and let us the voters make the decision. I'll bet that will get the voters out, and the question answered!!!!!
Grumpy,
I believe you got your threads mixed up.
This explains why my connection almost doubled a bag of weed in the last 5 yrs. Geesh...
First of all, this has been happening for iver 50 yrs. and for a while S.America was flying coke to Miami. This has nothing to do with undocumented residents. They were leaving forawhile because of the violence. It is not just pot. The grow that here (the Cartels), Our biggest import of meth and brown Heroin come from Mexico now. and no..Ca does not welcome it.
It's not just Pot they bring in, Meth, Heroin, and Cocaine all find their way in on the same routes, you folks argue to "make it legal" most of it would find it's way back to crime lords anyway, but hey when a guy kills people by the busloads it's not our problem right? It's disgusting the amount of you that think that this is ok, I drive on the same roads as you when your high, that's a real confidence builder.
Having a past work history as a social worker I would Agree totally with you MurrayGuy. The passive pot smokers are mellowed out and happy to munch a bag of chips while the true picture of the drug industry is seen everywhere. Children learn all too early about the realities of survival on the streets or within families that are 4th generation welfare because it is so much more fun to lay around and wait on a check. Mean while the people are involved with all of the aspects of the drug culture. The harder the drug, the greater the consequences. Crack and Meth grab hold of your soul and make Heroin and Cocaine look like a bag of Skittles.The industry is glorified in the movies and so wearing a hoodie on a dark street is a top fashion statement. I have sen so many terrible things that happened to the children on the cases I worked that each time, I would feel that this one has to be the worst. But then another case would come across my desk and it would be even more horrific than the last.
Drug users do not need be softly handled as we do now. The fact is that I have seen people who go to jail, find God, and swear that they are going to make up for all the wrongs they caused their children to endure. As soon as they get out it is party time and right back to the life of Drugs.They were clean for years, so the chemical dependency is gone, but the desire to escape into the fog again is too great. People who succeed in leaving the "life" do so because they see a need to do so. That comes from an internal source where private moral values out weigh the external influences. The end result is that you cannot force an addict to quit, not ever. Not so long as they have access to the drugs.
I thought Panga meant p e n i s in spanish. Would that mean that these are boats for d i c k s?
Necessity is the mother of invention. This is nothing more than spy versus spy. They create we figure out, they reinvent...nothing new here move along
Larry I respect Social workers and their opinion. If Pot were a totally never go to jail for posession, would the organized dealers even exist? Everything along that line would be gone. All this smuggling would be gone. Human cargo (Coyotes) which has nothing to do with this subject, has no place in this arguement. That is an industry to itself.
Since those who are users would not go to jail, there would be Fathers and mothers who would be still within their families. Those who convicted today, would not be criminals because of Jailing and possession. Everything to do with this subject would be changed for those individuals.
On the law enforcement end it is all money lost to a loosing cause, as we well know. And the big plus is the taxation thing, which would be a cash cow to governments.
What would a drug smuggler do with several tons of drugs if he didn't have an organization on this side of the border? Tell me that DEA can't find the network over here. Of course they can. Let them land the stuff and catch the mules in this country. They can't say they didn't know like they do when they attempt an international border crossing. They always claim they were just delivering a car and didn't know and we always buy that nonsense.
Sully, I agree with you as far as pot smokers NOT going to jail. Just put a very high fine on themand order them to work. If they aren't able to find a job, they can do Community Service from their home until they get a job, which job pays the fine first before they get $$ to buy more weed. That would be a punishment harsh enough to coax most of them to quit their habit.
Sadly, though, you are wrong in that "All this smuggling would be gone." For the love of Mike, man, it's not only pot that is smuggled! Coke, meth, etc. and humans are cash cows for the smugglers, too.
bonezzzzz, "The only way to stop this arms-race is to become the supplier, give the people what they are going to get regardless but give it to them in a safe, clinical setting where they can seek help for their addiction instead of pushing them underground, making an entire class of criminals out of otherwise non-violent, law-abiding citizens." Are actually advocating that our government become the supplier of more harmful substances (alcohol and tobacco are now legal), and that not if -- but when -- the citizen becomes dependent on those harmful substances, they then provide that citizen with a place to get "treatment"???!!! Your logic is seriously flawed! In addition, not only would the government be tolerating and/or encouraging harmful behavior, but the cost of such an approach in human and societital terms -- in addition to $$$ -- would be astronomical! Please rethink the approach that you are advocating to deal with this issue.
I'm with the "destroy the boats" crowd here. Wouldn't it be a shame if someone bombed/torpedoed or otherwise destroyed those boats? Any illegals coming here may be destroyed, too, but after all -- they, too, ar breaking the law. When people choose to break the law, they are also choosing any consequence from that behavior. My sympathy to lawbreakers is NIL!! and that includes myself, my family and friends. We all know better. As the saying goes: If you do the crime, you'll do the time.
I resent the way they reliece these criminal drug wholesalers after they catch them. Google DEA Most Wanted for a glimse of how stupid the Courts can be, letting these people have bail.
bring the troops home and send them to mexico! its way late in the game!
Did anyone catch the name of the boat in the second image? La Perrucha || I did a quick search for translation which turns up the English version of the name is female troublemaker that is just perfectly named in being a drug smuggling craft.
Get it right. It's the National Guard's Counterdrug Program. Which Congress is proposing to make huge cuts to.
Now, there's a switch for you, and wouldn't you believe it, California with all of its 'think tanks'. This has been going on for no less than three years and more than likely (tongue in cheek) the cartels learned their boating skills from Shabab or the Somalies. Why is MSNBC so slow at picking articles up like this??
And this is why the Navy and Coast Guard should never have decomissioned and scrapped the Pegasus Class Hydrofoil Gunboats in the early nineties. Park a couple of PHM's out there with the MK 75 Oto Melara 76MM and two quad boxes of Harpoons and soem serious surface search radar and they probably would have caught more than 50% of these small boats.
Hell. they could have asked Italy for the plans of the Sparviero-Class Hydrofoils. All they would have to do is add berthing spaces for the crew of 10 skippered by a Chief Warrant Officer. FWIW, if the Pegasus-Class were still in service, they navy could have had a small Patrol Boat Task Force built around two Cyclone Class PC"s and four Pegasus Class PHM's. Boeing probably still has the plans for the PHM's and possibly the former U.S.S. Flagstaff and U.S.S. Tucumcari. (PGH's 1&2) .
A small fleet of Pegasus, Sparviero, and Tucumcari/Flagstaff class ships could help the anti-piracy force off of Somalia as well as cruise the Persian Gulf for the GWOT.
Even better, they could have built updated and modernized versions of the U.S.S. Planview (or is it Plainview) a.k.a. AGEH-1 to use as a flagship. or use one of the new Littoral Combat Ships as flagships (although personally I think they are too large for their intended service as 'Green Water Navy' ships.
Come-On JCS, think about this for a long hard while. Have Boeing and other companies in the USA build the smaller 70-85ft ships based off of a combination of the Tucumcari, the Flagstaff, the Sparviero's, and the JMSDF's former 1-Go hydrofoils with accommodations for a crew of 10-12 officers and enlisted for the Coasties and build some new PHM's based off the Pegasus design (which is basically a Lengthened and improved Tucumcari) for the Navy and Coast Guard. Arm all of them with a MK 75 Oto Melara up front and a dual mount 25 MM Bushmaster out back and some anti-ships missiles starting with the Harpoon and getting smaller as well as 2x30MM Close In Weapons Systems for a defense against air attack. Embark at least one SH-2G/H/J or whatever letter they're up to now Kaman Seasprite as a dual purpose helo (Search and Rescue as well as Surface search) and you got the beginnings fo a fleet of ships that can get closer to the the pirate lairs and prowl around to hunt for drug dealers.
But of course, no one thinks like I do.
Gotta love all the people who are against smoking pot when they never smoked any a day in their lives,try smoking it before you judge it,stay out of my life like i stay out of yours!Who are you to tell me what i can and cant do?
the law say's you can't do it. pretty simple huh?
The only explanation why mariuana is not legal is that the people in charge (lawmakers, judges, police) are in on it too. I am sure they make a big share of the profits from this. Because otherwise this is a complete waste of time, suffering, and money.
'The faces of the three men being arrested have been blurred" to protect their rights, while the officers arresting them are clearly shown for your rights to know. For more information on the officers go to our website, or turn to page 3...just made that up, but what a joke! It should read "the funeral services for the three arrested are pending!"
shoot all the gang bangers, drug smugglers, cartels, drug lords etc. That would solve a lot of problems and more than likely discourage anyone else on continuing the business. These ppl kill innocent ppl everyday, they should be shown no mercy, thats God's job. Now im not saying shoot illegal immigrants, we can deal with them in a justified matter.