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Coast Guard Law Enforcement
FACT SHEET -- COAST GUARD LAW ENFORCMENT
- The United States Coast Guard is the nation's leading maritime law enforcement agency and is charged with securing America's more than 95,000 miles of coastline.
- The law enforcement authority makes the Coast Guard truly unique among the other armed services components. Whether saving the lives of migrants, busting a drug smuggler, helping protect the livelihoods of local fisherman or enforcing boating safety laws so that everyone can enjoy our waterways, the Coast Guard has been performing the critical law enforcement mission for 217 years.
Drugs
The Coast Guard is the nation's leading maritime law enforcement agency; however, drug interdiction is truly an interagency effort. Through federal partnerships we are able to make significant gains in keeping illegal drugs out of our country and the profits out of the drug dealers' hands. (Partners include DEA, Dept. of Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Dept. of Defense.)
- This year the Coast Guard has seized more than $4.7 billion (more than 355, 000 lbs) in cocaine.
- The Coast Guard is seeing smugglers adopt diverse and expensive (semi-submersibles, liquid cocaine, alternate routes) ways to get their product around our interdiction efforts. This change in tactics is indicative of our success in maritime interdiction.
Specific success stories:
- U.S. Coast Guard, Navy and Customs and Border Protection crews interdicted and boarded a self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel in the Eastern Pacific loaded with an estimated $352 million of cocaine Aug. 19, 2007.
- The U.S. Coast Guard captured Mexican drug lord, Arellano Felix, as he was deep-sea fishing aboard his yacht in international waters off Mexico's Baja California coast in August 2006. He was sentenced to life in prison this year.
- The Coast Guard and its partners interdicted more than 9,000 pounds of cocaine and 250 gallons of liquid cocaine Sept. 2007. Each gallon of liquid cocaine can be made into approximately 2 kilograms of pure cocaine.
- The Coast Guard's made its largest maritime cocaine seizure when it intercepted the Panamanian vessel GATUN carrying more than 33,500 pounds of the narcotic -- or approximately 20 tons in March 2007.
Migrants
- Biometric innovations on the Mona Pass have resulted in the collection on data on 1318 illegal migrants. (More than 270 matches and 95 prosecutions have resulted. This is a factor in the reduction of flow in 2007--down 50%).
- As we enforce our nation's immigration laws along the maritime borders, our primary concern during migrant interdictions is the safety of life at sea.
Fisheries/Environment
- The nation's waterways and their ecosystems are vital to the country's economy and health. In order for the United States is to enjoy a rich, diverse and sustainable ocean environment, the Coast Guard works to halt the degradation of our ocean's natural resources associated with maritime activities.
- Ensuring the country's marine-protected species are provided the protection necessary to help their populations recover to healthy, sustainable levels is critical to our nation's waterways and the livelihoods of those they support.
- The U.S. Coast Guard participates in the international cooperative efforts against high-seas drift net fishing as encouraged by the United Nations. The term IUU fishing describes a wide range of destructive fishing activities, which includes use of large-scale high-seas drift nets. Many maritime nations, including the U.S., have undertaken to monitor and deter IUU fishing, and protect shared living marine resources and their environments. IUU fishing is considered to be one of the main obstacles to sustainable world fisheries and healthy oceans ecosystems.
Video of interception of Chinese fishing vessel suspected of high-seas drift net fishing.
Safe Boating Enforcement
- The Coast Guard strives to make our waterways safe for everyone to enjoy by enforcing boating safety laws.
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