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COAST GUARD'S FALSE DRUG VICTORY
JACOB SULLUM - In a recent press release, the Coast Guard brags that
it's been "a record year for cocaine seizures with 355,755 pounds
seized, worth more than $4.7 billion." It claims smugglers are
"desperate" and cites unusually large seizures as evidence.
Is a rising seizure total a sign of success or a sign that the volume
crossing the border has increased? Is an increase in large-volume
seizures a sign of smugglers' desperation or a sign that smugglers are
not terribly worried about interdiction, treating the risk as a cost of
doing business? The press release acknowledges that "smugglers adapt
their tactics in response to effective counter-narcotic measures." So
even "effective" interdiction efforts cannot have a substantial, lasting
impact on drug consumption, as Antonio Maria Costa, director of the U.N.
Office on Drugs and Crime, conceded in a speech at the International
Conference on Drug Policy Reform earlier this month.
However much the Coast Guard seizes, enough drugs always get through to
meet the demand. The most drug warriors can expect is to temporarily
increase prices by raising traffickers' cost of doing business. Since
the cost of replacing seized drugs is very small compared to their
retail value, with most of the markup occurring after they arrive in the
U.S., interdiction is a highly inefficient way of discouraging drug use.
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/124041.html
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DRUGS NOW BEING BROUGHT IN BY SUBMARINE
ABC NEWS BLOTTER - Drug traffickers are using a fleet of as many as 20
mini subs to move huge quantities of cocaine through the Caribbean,
federal law enforcement and Coast Guard officials tell ABC News. The
cocaine vessels are often harder to detect than Russian submarines
because of the way they skim the surface, officials say. The Russian
submarine has a certain signal you can listen to underwater," said Coast
Guard Adm. Joseph L. Nimmich, director of Joint Interagency Task Force
South, based in Key West, Fla. The cocaine vessels give "very little
signal," said the admiral, whose officers are testing a captured sub in
order to adjust Coast Guard sensors. . .
The vessels are able to travel up to 2,000 miles and evade U.S. Navy and
Coast Guard ships patrolling the waters between Colombia and the U.S.
and Mexico. .S. officials say the cocaine trafficking groups actually
assemble the vessels in the jungles of Colombia and then truck them to
remote ports to be launched. The vessels carry a crew of only two or
three and often are purposefully sunk if detected by patrol boats,
officials say.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/12/run-silent-run.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
COAST GUARD'S FALSE DRUG VICTORY
JACOB SULLUM - In a recent press release, the Coast Guard brags that
it's been "a record year for cocaine seizures with 355,755 pounds
seized, worth more than $4.7 billion." It claims smugglers are
"desperate" and cites unusually large seizures as evidence.
Is a rising seizure total a sign of success or a sign that the volume
crossing the border has increased? Is an increase in large-volume
seizures a sign of smugglers' desperation or a sign that smugglers are
not terribly worried about interdiction, treating the risk as a cost of
doing business? The press release acknowledges that "smugglers adapt
their tactics in response to effective counter-narcotic measures." So
even "effective" interdiction efforts cannot have a substantial, lasting
impact on drug consumption, as Antonio Maria Costa, director of the U.N.
Office on Drugs and Crime, conceded in a speech at the International
Conference on Drug Policy Reform earlier this month.
However much the Coast Guard seizes, enough drugs always get through to
meet the demand. The most drug warriors can expect is to temporarily
increase prices by raising traffickers' cost of doing business. Since
the cost of replacing seized drugs is very small compared to their
retail value, with most of the markup occurring after they arrive in the
U.S., interdiction is a highly inefficient way of discouraging drug use.
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/124041.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DRUGS NOW BEING BROUGHT IN BY SUBMARINE
ABC NEWS BLOTTER - Drug traffickers are using a fleet of as many as 20
mini subs to move huge quantities of cocaine through the Caribbean,
federal law enforcement and Coast Guard officials tell ABC News. The
cocaine vessels are often harder to detect than Russian submarines
because of the way they skim the surface, officials say. The Russian
submarine has a certain signal you can listen to underwater," said Coast
Guard Adm. Joseph L. Nimmich, director of Joint Interagency Task Force
South, based in Key West, Fla. The cocaine vessels give "very little
signal," said the admiral, whose officers are testing a captured sub in
order to adjust Coast Guard sensors. . .
The vessels are able to travel up to 2,000 miles and evade U.S. Navy and
Coast Guard ships patrolling the waters between Colombia and the U.S.
and Mexico. .S. officials say the cocaine trafficking groups actually
assemble the vessels in the jungles of Colombia and then truck them to
remote ports to be launched. The vessels carry a crew of only two or
three and often are purposefully sunk if detected by patrol boats,
officials say.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/12/run-silent-run.html
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