To catch a smuggler: in the war on drugs, even small victories are celebrated.
National Defense › Vol. 93 Nbr. 664, March 2009
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War On Drugs
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To catch a smuggler: in the war on drugs, even small victories are celebrated.
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IN THE SOUTHERN CARIBBEAN -- An Air Force surveillance plane takes off on a balmy December evening flora Curacao, a Dutch island dependency off the northern coast of South America. After reaching altitude, crewmembers swivel around in their chairs and put on headsets as their workstations whir to life. As soon as the screens start lighting up with air traffic information, they set to work calibrating displays, punching buttons and testing communications in preparation for their 12-hour mission to search for drug smugglers. It is a cat-and-mouse game here in a region rife with illicit narcotics trafficking by air and by sea. In 2006, an estimated 530 to 710 metric tons of" cocaine departed South America toward the United States, the Interagency Assessment of Cocaine Movement reports. Even though the Defense Department regularly dispatches some of its most prized weapons systems--including this E-3 Sentry aircraft--to battle the problem, more often than not, the mice appear to be winning....See the full content of this document
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