A boat capable of carrying $30 million worth of cocaine is being tracked off the coast
of Central America.
The cargo, which originated in South America, has traveled hundreds of nautical miles, ultimately
bound for streets in the U.S. and Europe.
In its path stands a unique alliance of the U.S. military, federal intelligence and law
enforcement agencies, and 15 partner nations.
The Joint Interagency Task Force South, or JIATF as it is known, operates from the southernmost
border of the U.S., on Key West, Florida.
Its mission is to stem the flow of illegal drugs across 42 million square miles in the
Western hemisphere.
Seizures of these drug shipments—cat-and-mouse scenarios that play out daily on the high
seas—are often dramatic, with Coast Guard cuttermen boarding vessels and making arrests.
But that’s just part of the story—the end result of a seamless evolution of intelligence
into highly orchestrated tactical operations.
What makes JIATF so nimble and effective is its strategic makeup.
Task force members—from every branch of the military, along with federal law enforcement
agencies and liaisons from 15 member countries—are all under one roof.
So communication moves quickly.
And there are no layers of diplomacy or bureaucracy to cut through when it’s time to act.
One of the highlights of being here is that the intelligence and the operations work together
in the same facility.
I think that JIATF is the poster child for where integration of intel and ops works.
As a federal law enforcement and intelligence organization, the FBI is one of the key producers
of intelligence at JIATF.
With sources throughout the country, agents can pass along tips on drug shipments directly
to JIATF, where task force commanders can launch surveillance planes and other tools
to pinpoint the vessels used by traffickers.
Once spotted, military and law enforcement personnel step in to carry out the interdictions.
Coast Guard Rear Admiral Christopher Tomney, who is director of JIATF, said the FBI is
integral to successful operations.
They are both a supplier of information that makes this task force much more effective
than ever before with that information.
They are a facilitator, helping to share and exchange our information with our partners,
and hopefully they are a benefactor at the end of the process.
Lt. Col. Ziggy Shoepf, an Air Force liaison, said having good intelligence on potential
routes traffickers may pursue is critical given the breadth of the territory spotter
planes have to cover.
The key to success here is what law enforcement brings to the fight, in terms of the human
intelligence and law enforcement technical information, that takes a 42 million square
mile area and breaks it into something that’s manageable by an aircraft can search.
It could be as simple as knowing what route they might be taking.
If we know the route, we can estimate the speed based on the description of the vessel
or the SPSS, and we can find that location on the great big ocean, where they can start
searching for that vessel.
For liaisons from partner countries, particularly those in Central America where criminal gangs
play a major role in illegal trafficking, having immediate access to U.S. operatives—and
counterparts from neighbor countries—provides an advantage for their own domestic anti-trafficking
efforts.
If I had to go through and make a contact with the Colombian liaison office, for example,
I just have to walk to the office.
I don’t need a passport or a visa or make diplomatic procedures.
In a matter of minutes, we have the information needed to be successful in the maritime interdiction
or air interdictions.
Since we’re all in the same directorate and we’re just a few steps away, one office
to the other of all the other liaison officers— foreign liaison officers.
The information doesn’t only flow from your country to JIATF, but it starts going between
the other countries of interest.
So the information flow really grows exponentially.
One example is a recent case where an FBI agent in New Orleans learned that Honduran
drug traffickers were launching a boat from Costa Rica, bound for the U.S. with a cache
of weapons and cocaine.
The tip came into JIATF, where a watch floor commander sought assistance from Honduran
liaison officer Lt. Col. Gustavo Alvarez.
At Alvarez's urging, the Honduran military dispatched patrol boats and aircraft to intercept
and apprehend the traffickers, providing a huge boost to an FBI investigation.
In 2015, JIATF acknowledged the FBI’s significant role, naming a special agent as vice director
of the task force.
Brett Chianella said JIATF’s defense-forward strategy is to disrupt and dismantle illegal
trafficking networks before their product reaches the U.S.
Even though they’re not on our borders at that time, it’s coming.
So either you deal with it 1,500 miles away or you deal with it here within the United
States.
I think the bigger picture to that is if they can smuggle contraband in that vessel, what
else can they smuggle?
You can smuggle individuals.
You can smuggle weapons.
You can smuggle money.
You can smuggle groups that want to come into the United States in a concealed method.
So I think that those bigger type targets with national security priorities, not only
the criminal side, but that type of impact to the United States, we have to keep our
eye on the ball.
JIATF Director Tomney says a central mission of the task force is to bring stability to
the region by fighting the transnational threat.
All while keeping drugs off America’s streets.
We’ve taken over 6 billion dollars’ worth of illicit profits out of the system.
We are talking not just kilos of cocaine, we’re not just talking tons of cocaine,
we are talking hundreds of tons of cocaine that have been intercepted which are no longer
reaching, not just main street of the United States, but main street of pick a country
on the globe.