Increased pressure by the United States government along the Mexican border to help choke off the flow of illegal cross-border activity has resulted in an increase of this activity in the Caribbean region, congressional and Puerto Rican officials charged recently.
In FY ’11, the amount of illegal drugs seized in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Gulf of Mexico represented a 36 percent increase over the past four years, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management, said at the outset of a hearing examining the “U.S. Caribbean border.”
McCaul noted that 80 percent of the cocaine entering Puerto Rico is destined for cities along the East Coast of the United States.
McCaul said the Caribbean region is the “third border” of the United States, adding that for now it is “an open door for drug traffickers and terrorists.” He cited recent testimony by James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, as saying to expect terrorists and insurgents to turn to crime and related networks for their logistics and to raise money.
“Over the past decade, seemingly as a result of the United States counter-narcotics efforts in Mexico and Central America, the Caribbean region has become a key transshipment point for drugs flowing into the United States,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking member of the full committee, said. “Unfortunately, two U.S. territories, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have become attractive targets for drug traffickers and places the safety and security of U.S. citizens at risk.”
Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno noted that as a U.S. territory, once illegal drugs enter Puerto Rico they can be delivered easily to the mainland U.S. via commercial airlines and container ships “without having to clear Customs or other heightened scrutiny.” He said that nearly 30 percent of the illegal drugs entering the continental U.S. ship through the Caribbean.
The increase in international drug activity in the region and in Puerto Rico has fueled an increase in murders in the territory, Fortuno said. Drugs and related money are entering his territory from countries that are the source of this illegal activity while firearms are coming in from various states in the U.S. mainland, he said.
Despite the increased illegal activity in the Caribbean, the U.S. efforts to combat the trafficking remain “under resourced,” Fortuno said. He added that his pleas to the Obama administration for a comprehensive strategy to combat the illegal activity and even just to fill vacant spots that agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have in Puerto Rico have been unheeded.
Fortuno said that federal law enforcement authorities are working “exceptionally” in Puerto Rico but that they “lack the appropriate resources to overcome the homeland security threats that pervade this nation, including our U.S. territories. That’s the primary role of the federal government. Yet, it is clear that over 4 million U.S. citizens in the Caribbean territories are being left under protected.”
In the face of an austere fiscal environment, Fortuno said that the federal government can boost counter-drug activities in the Caribbean by conducting temporary surges of personnel and equipment as well as redirecting resources from areas that are over resourced.
However, officials from the Department of Homeland Security representing the Coast Guard, ICE, and Customs and Border Protection’s Offices of Air and Marine and Field Operations, all said that there are no areas where they are over resourced.
Rep. William Keating (D-Mass.), who agrees that the federal resources devoted to the Caribbean region to combat illegal drug activities are subpar relative to other fronts in the nation’s counter-narcotics battle, said that it might just come down to a the need for more resources, which are being reduced in the latest budget.