DEA
Congressional Testimony [print
friendly page] Statement
of Mr. Chairman, thank
you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the Drug Enforcement Administration
regarding Puerto Rico. With your permission, I wish to submit my written
statement for the record. As you have heard
from Mr. Ledwith, the Caribbean is a major transit zone for drugs entering
the United States from South America. Within that area, Puerto Rico provides
a particularly significant link between South America and the Continental
United States. The island is singular in the opportunities it provides
for traffickers, as well as the challenges it creates for law enforcement.
DRUG TRAFFICKING THROUGH PUERTO RICO: More than ever, international
drug trafficking organizations utilize Puerto Rico as a major point of
entry for the transshipment of multi-ton quantities of cocaine being smuggled
into the United States. Puerto Rico has become known as a gateway for
drugs destined for cities on the East Coast of the United States. Puerto
Rico's 300-mile coastline, the vast number of isolated cays, and six million
square miles of open water between the U.S. and Colombia, make the region
difficult to patrol and ideal for a variety of smuggling methods. Puerto Rico is an
active Caribbean sea and air transportation thoroughfare. The island boasts
the third busiest seaport in North America and fourteenth busiest in the
world, as well as approximately 75 daily commercial airline flights to
the Continental United States. This presents an attractive logistical
opportunity for drug trafficking organizations. The sheer volume of commercial
activity is the traffickers' greatest asset. Criminal organizations have
utilized their financial capabilities to corrupt mechanics; longshoremen;
airline employees; and ticket counter agents; as well as government officials
and others, whose corrupt practices broaden the scope of the trafficking.
Not only has corruption
of legitimate business become a problem on the island, but Colombian drug
trafficking organizations will routinely pay local criminal transportation
organizations up to 20 percent of their product (cocaine) for their services.
This form of payment has acted as a catalyst for the development of a
very profitable, but competitive, local distribution market. The interaction
between Colombian drug traffickers and local transporters, along with
the resulting distribution market, is commonly referred to as the "spill-over
effect." This "spill-over effect" has resulted in an increase in violence
and bloodshed within the Puerto Rican community. It is estimated that
about 80 percent of all documented homicides in Puerto Rico are drug related.
Law enforcement efforts are further impeded by the close-knit relationships
shared by the drug trafficking organizations which have developed and
fostered over the years. Only 360 miles from
Colombia's North Coast and 80 miles from the East Coast of the Dominican
Republic, Puerto Rico, is easily reachable by twin engine aircraft hauling
payloads of 500 to 700 kilograms of cocaine. The "go-fast" boats make
their round trip cocaine runs to the Southern coast of Puerto Rico in
less than a day. Today, cocaine and heroin traffickers from Colombia have
transformed Puerto Rico into the largest staging area in the Caribbean
for illicit drugs destined for the U.S. market. Once the illicit
narcotics are smuggled into Puerto Rico, they are routinely stored in
secluded, mountainous areas of the island until transportation to the
Continental United States can be arranged. The contraband is then repackaged
into smaller shipments in preparation for the move. The narcotics are
smuggled out of Puerto Rico via commercial maritime vessels and on commercial
airlines, either in the possession of couriers, or concealed in cargo.
PERSONNEL CHALLENGES: The open use of the
Caribbean as a narcotics transshipment center has created a public safety
crisis in Puerto Rico, and DEA must assign resources to the island to
address this threat. Although this is necessary, we have had continuing
difficulties retaining federal law enforcement personnel in the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico. Few personnel from the Continental United States are willing
to accept a transfer to Puerto Rico, and those who do so often want to
leave soon after arrival. Such quality of life issues as inadequate public
services, unreliable utilities, limited accessibility of medical care,
the high cost of living, an exclusionary social structure, limited availability
of appropriate schools for dependent children, and the high incidence
of crime have contributed to early turnover and family separations. As a result, DEA
has in place a variety of incentive packages for Special Agents, Diversion
Investigators, and Intelligence Analysts relocating to Puerto Rico.
In addition, we have:
While the present
incentives have proven to be partial solutions, they have not increased
the average length of tour in Puerto Rico beyond two years. DEA is focusing
on the personnel retention issue with a variety of proposals. The non-pay
related initiatives are:
PUERTO RICO RESOURCES FY 1997-2000 Since FY 1997, DEA
has increased the special agent resources to the Caribbean. In that time,
a total of 47 agents have been added to the Caribbean Field Division,
36 of which are assigned to Puerto Rico. The remaining agents have been
assigned to regional offices within the Caribbean Field Division, including
Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Santo Domingo. Congress has also
provided $20,400,000.00 since 1997 for advanced technical, maritime, and
aviation equipment (including two helicopters) to support regional operations
in the Caribbean. In our FY 2000 appropriation,
DEA received an additional 17 positions (11 Special Agents) and $2.4 million
for drug enforcement operations in Puerto Rico, as well as the funds to
enhance quality of life issues, as noted above. ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS/INITIATIVES: There are presently
74 Special Agents, constituting six enforcement groups, assigned to the
Caribbean Field Division (CFD). Five groups are earmarked for specialized
enforcement initiatives. They are as follows: one High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area (HIDTA), two task forces, a money laundering group, and
an airport group. Each group possesses expertise in a specific domain
and fully exploits it, to thwart the traffickers. Since no single agency
has adequate resources to investigate all drug trafficking organizations
in the Caribbean, each task force group pools the investigative talents
of the local police departments with the federal specialists and leverage
available to the Drug Enforcement Administration. This combination results
in highly effective drug enforcement investigations and prosecutions.
As part of the United
States, Puerto Rico serves as an entry point for drug money coming into
our banking system. Whether it also serves as an exit point of the United
States is not known. In addition, U.S. currency, in small denominations,
is brought from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. It is declared
as money coming from various casas de cambio (money exchange houses) in
Santo Domingo, and once in Puerto Rico, deposited into accounts in the
name of Dominican Republic casas de cambio. At this point, the proceeds
are funneled back to Panama or Colombia or integrated into the economy
of Puerto Rico. As such, the money laundering group focuses on these financial
transactions as well as the movement of bulk shipments of small denomination
U.S. currency into and out of the United States. Since being designated
as a HIDTA area in 1995, the HIDTA group has yielded substantial results
in drug interdiction efforts in the region. This group has developed into
a strong partnership of DEA, FBI, U.S. Postal Inspectors, INS and Puerto
Rican IRS personnel, targeting mid-upper level drug trafficking organizations.
UNICORN System: The Caribbean Field
Division identified a void in drug-related intelligence and communications
among the Caribbean nations. In response, the UNICORN system (Unified
Caribbean On-Line Regional Network) was instituted. With this system,
participating Caribbean law enforcement agencies can share photographs,
data, and information concerning various targets, locations, and groups
involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. The Drug Enforcement
Administration loans the equipment to participating agencies and provides
training to host-nation counterparts, as well as installing and implementing
the system. The UNICORN system
has already reaped tremendous benefits, as exhibited in the success of
Operations Columbus and Genesis. These two recent enforcement operations,
planned and coordinated by the Caribbean Field Division, have severely
disrupted drug trafficking organizations throughout the Caribbean region.
The first, Operation Genesis, was a bi-national initiative designed to
foster cooperation between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Due to a
mutual, long-standing mistrust, Haiti and the Dominican Republic had never
before coordinated anti-drug efforts. This has effectively curtailed the
ability of law enforcement agencies in the region and, in effect, bolstered
the resourcefulness of the drug smuggling organizations. The second action,
titled Operation Columbus, was the largest enforcement operation, to date,
in the Caribbean. This endeavor was a multi-national operation, comprised
of fifteen nations and their respective law enforcement agencies. Operation Genesis: The island of Hispañola,
by virtue of its geographic proximity between the source zone countries
and the United States, is frequently utilized by drug trafficking organizations.
Operation Genesis was designed to respond to this situation and to foster
and maintain cooperation between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the
two countries on that island. This operation, which was conducted during
November 1998, resulted in 126 arrests throughout Haiti and the Dominican
Republic. Prior to Operation Genesis, Haiti and the Dominican Republic
had never before coordinated their anti-drug efforts. However, the results
garnered through Operation Genesis will undoubtedly assist in improving
the ability to coordinate anti-drug efforts on the island of Hispañola.
The long-term objectives
for Operation Genesis were to promote the exchange of information between
Haiti and the Dominican Republic, facilitate the integration and coordination
of Haitian and Dominican anti-drug efforts, establish a mechanism that
will support the counter-drug effort, develop institutional mentoring
and training, and disrupt drug trafficking operations that are being conducted
on the island of Hispañola. The operation was
executed in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, using roadblocks at
strategic locations and border crossing points, interdiction operations
at the international airports and seaports, and United States Coast Guard
maritime interdiction along the southern coast of Hispañola. Operation Genesis
resulted in unprecedented exchanges of law enforcement cooperation by
both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. As a result, the Haitian National
Police (HNP) assigned an officer and an analyst to the Dominican National
Drug Control Agency's (DNCD) Santo Domingo office, and four (4) more HNP
officers were stationed at Dominican border crossing points. DNCD officials,
on the other hand, were assigned to the HNP headquarters' at Port-au-Prince,
as well as several Haitian border crossing points. The exchange of information
was further expedited by the UNICORN system, which facilitated data base
checks of suspicious persons and vehicles that were stopped. The information
was sent to the Caribbean Field Division (CFD)/San Juan office where system
checks were performed. The information was then sent back to the HNP via
the UNICORN system. Operation Columbus: Operation Columbus
was a multi-national regional effort involving the island nations of the
Caribbean, in addition to Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama. The operation
focused on air, land and maritime interdiction, eradication, and clandestine
airstrip denial. DEA's Santo Domingo Country Office and Trinidad and Tobago
Country Office served as the northern and southern command posts. The
UNICORN system was used to facilitate the exchange of actionable intelligence.
Operation Columbus's principle objectives were: 1. The development of a cohesive/cooperative environment among source and transit countries, 2. Disruption of drug trafficking activities, 3. The consolidation of the counterdrug efforts in the Caribbean transit zone, 4. The continued development of a comprehensive regional strategy. Operation Columbus
was planned and initiated by the CFD to severely impact the drug trafficking
activities in the Caribbean and source country areas. Columbus was implemented
through interdiction and eradication efforts, enforcement operations involving
the use of undercover agents, confidential sources, Title III intercepts,
and surveillance. The final arrest
and seizure statistics for Operation Columbus were unprecedented for this
region. There were in excess of 1,290 arrests, as well as the seizure
of 900 kilograms of cocaine and nine kilograms of heroin. Over 38 weapons,
26 vehicles, 27 vessels, three laboratories and one aircraft were seized.
In addition, 1,097 metric tons of marijuana were eradicated. It became evident
during the course of this massive undertaking that a coordinated effort
among all the respective participants was necessary. Through the diligence
of all those involved, these operations struck a solid blow to the Caribbean-based
trafficking groups. Clearly, concerted law enforcement efforts, such as
Operations Genesis and Columbus, will significantly enhance our ability
to eliminate drug trafficking organizations throughout the Caribbean region.
CONCLUSION The transit of illegal
drugs through Puerto Rico creates unique challenges to law enforcement.
DEA is aggressively addressing the trafficking threat to Puerto Rico and
working to improve the ability of DEA personnel assigned to the island
to confront the threat. Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee. I appreciate the interest you and the subcommittee have shown in DEA's drug law enforcement efforts in Puerto Rico. At this time, I will be happy to answer any questions you or the other committee members may have. |