NewsWhore
06-25-2012, 05:21 PM
The US federal government announced plans to double drone surveillance flights over the Caribbean. The effort seeks to discourage Mexican cartels that are now using the Caribbean route due to increased successful patrolling of the US-Mexico border.
The Los Angeles Times reported that after quietly testing the unmanned Predator drones over the Bahamas for more than 18 months, the Department of Homeland Security plans to expand the unmanned surveillance flights into the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico to fight drug smuggling, according to US officials.
As reported in The Los Angeles Times, the Federal Aviation Administration has already approved a flight path for the drones to fly more than 1,000 miles to the Mona Passage, the strait between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
"There is a lot more going on in the deep Caribbean, and we would like to know more," a law enforcement official familiar with the program who was not authorized to speak publicly told The Los Angeles Times. The official said drones may be based temporarily at airfields in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
The decision to double the unmanned surveillance flights is in response to demands from leaders in the western Caribbean, namely Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, to shift more drug agents, surveillance aircraft and ships into the area, as cartels have switched from the closely watched US-Mexico border to seaborne routes.
In a letter to the White House last week, Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuno and USVI Gov. John deJongh said that an estimated 70 to 80% of Colombian cocaine reaching Puerto Rico via Venezuela and the Dominican Republic is destined for US streets. In total, an estimated 30% of illegal drugs reaching the US mainland transits through the Caribbean, the governors said.
The drug trade has in turn made Puerto Rico and the USVI a major destination for illicit drug money and illegal firearms coming from mainland US drug networks and is leading to an increase in related violence, the letter said, noting that both US Caribbean territories are posting homicide rates exponentially higher than the US average. Nearly three quarters of the murders in Puerto Rico and the USVI are drug related, the governors said.
Puerto Rico has been a significant victim of the increase in drug trafficking. In 2011, the homicide rate hit a historic high of 1,136, with 8 out of 10 killings related to drug trafficking, The Times reports.
Nevertheless, there is the concern that there is no proven effectiveness of the drones. Military, Coast Guard and Drug Enforcement Agency officers told the Los Angeles Times they are yet to be convinced that the unmanned surveillance craft can be an effective tool to spot fastboats, fishing vessels and makeshift submarines ferrying tons of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Nevertheless, the newspaper reports that in a new drone called a Guardian with a SeaVue radar system can scan large sections of open ocean. Drug agents can check a ship's unique radio pulse in databases to identify the boat and owner.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drugs-caribbean-20120623,0,3135494.story
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)
The Los Angeles Times reported that after quietly testing the unmanned Predator drones over the Bahamas for more than 18 months, the Department of Homeland Security plans to expand the unmanned surveillance flights into the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico to fight drug smuggling, according to US officials.
As reported in The Los Angeles Times, the Federal Aviation Administration has already approved a flight path for the drones to fly more than 1,000 miles to the Mona Passage, the strait between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
"There is a lot more going on in the deep Caribbean, and we would like to know more," a law enforcement official familiar with the program who was not authorized to speak publicly told The Los Angeles Times. The official said drones may be based temporarily at airfields in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
The decision to double the unmanned surveillance flights is in response to demands from leaders in the western Caribbean, namely Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, to shift more drug agents, surveillance aircraft and ships into the area, as cartels have switched from the closely watched US-Mexico border to seaborne routes.
In a letter to the White House last week, Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuno and USVI Gov. John deJongh said that an estimated 70 to 80% of Colombian cocaine reaching Puerto Rico via Venezuela and the Dominican Republic is destined for US streets. In total, an estimated 30% of illegal drugs reaching the US mainland transits through the Caribbean, the governors said.
The drug trade has in turn made Puerto Rico and the USVI a major destination for illicit drug money and illegal firearms coming from mainland US drug networks and is leading to an increase in related violence, the letter said, noting that both US Caribbean territories are posting homicide rates exponentially higher than the US average. Nearly three quarters of the murders in Puerto Rico and the USVI are drug related, the governors said.
Puerto Rico has been a significant victim of the increase in drug trafficking. In 2011, the homicide rate hit a historic high of 1,136, with 8 out of 10 killings related to drug trafficking, The Times reports.
Nevertheless, there is the concern that there is no proven effectiveness of the drones. Military, Coast Guard and Drug Enforcement Agency officers told the Los Angeles Times they are yet to be convinced that the unmanned surveillance craft can be an effective tool to spot fastboats, fishing vessels and makeshift submarines ferrying tons of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Nevertheless, the newspaper reports that in a new drone called a Guardian with a SeaVue radar system can scan large sections of open ocean. Drug agents can check a ship's unique radio pulse in databases to identify the boat and owner.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drugs-caribbean-20120623,0,3135494.story
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)