• The Coast Guard is the designated lead agency for maritime interdiction and shares co-lead responsibilities for air interdiction with the U.S. Customs Service.



• The Coast Guard Drug Interdiction Program is designed to eliminate maritime routes as a significant trafficking mode for the supply of drugs to the U.S. through seizures, disruption and displacement. Coast Guard cutters, boats, and aircraft conduct routine law enforcement patrols and special operations throughout the maritime arena, including waters adjacent to principal source and transit countries, and in U.S. coastal waters. In conducting these interdiction missions, the Coast Guard relies on intelligence information derived from its own intelligence activities and other U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies.

• The Coast Guard conducts combined operations such as CARIBE VENTURE, a multi-national maritime operation, and provides training to bolster the interdiction capabilities of Caribbean nations. In this way, these nations become more capable partners and conduct more effective drug control efforts.



• The Coast Guard cooperates closely with the Department of State to negotiate bilateral maritime counternarcotic agreements. These are designed to reinforce the political will of the international community to cooperate on drug control efforts.



• The Coast Guard provides leadership in support of United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP) initiatives. This enables them to make greater use of multilateral organizations to share the burden and costs of international narcotics control and complement the efforts of the United States.



• The Coast Guard provides resources for LASER STRIKE, a combined source country operation designed to cut the flow of cocaine.

IV. BUDGET SUMMARY

1997 Base Program

• The FY 1997 base program includes $329.5 million for drug-related activities which support Goal 4 of the National Drug Control Strategy. This amount consists of $313.6 million for Operating Expenses, $15.5 million for Acquisition, Construction and Improvements, and $0.5 million for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation.



• The 1997 base program includes $6.2 million in Operating Expenses for drug-related activities which support Goal 5 of the National Drug Control Strategy.

• The total FY 1998 drug control budget request is $388.7 million, an increase of $53 million over the FY 1997 enacted level.



• The Coast Guard counterdrug programs support Goals 4 and 5 of the National Drug Control Strategy. The FY 1998 funding request will allow the Coast Guard to continue participation in joint inter-agency and combined international counterdrug efforts. This involves Coast Guard transit zone and arrival zone counterdrug operations, the pursuit of inter-agency and international maritime counterdrug agreements that foster cooperation and coordination of counterdrug efforts, as well as participation in counterdrug operations and institution building initiatives with source/transit zone countries. Drug law enforcement program enhancements in FY 1998 will provide increased operational support to the Southwest border and the Puerto Rico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) initiatives.

• The total drug control request for Goal 4 activities for FY 1998 is $381.3 million, a net increase of $51.8 million over FY 1997. The request includes increases for Coast Guard aerial and maritime interdiction operations; and intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination.



• The FY 1998 request will allow the Coast Guard to initiate Campaign STEEL WEB, a comprehensive operation designed to complement counterdrug initiatives of other Federal, local and foreign law enforcement agencies to shield U.S. maritime borders from the importation of illicit drugs. The success of Operation FRONTIER SHIELD served as proof of concept for a flexible STEEL WEB type operation to improve maritime interdiction effectiveness.

• The drug control request for Goal 5 activities for FY 1998 is $7.4 million, a net increase of $1.2 million over FY 1997. The 1998 request includes the following program enhancements:



• An increase in international training efforts to empower source and transit country law enforcement with skills and knowledge to counter the increasing sophistication of narcotraffickers and to reinforce the political will of friendly governments to partner in counterdrug initiatives.



• Provides full funding for a HU-25C air interceptor to support source country initiatives such as LASER STRIKE.

V. PROGRAM STATISTICS

	1996 Actual	1997 Estimate	1998 Projected
Drug Seizures:
- Cocaine (lbs)	27,667	44,000	44,000
- Marijuana (tons)	15	17	17
- Seizure Cases	40	41	41

Note: Seizures are not the only, nor necessarily the most critical measure of program effectiveness. Displacement of drug smuggling routes and disruption of drug smuggling operations, while difficult to quantify, help achieve the Coast Guard's goal of reducing drugs entering the U.S. through maritime routes. Also, drug seizure data depicted is based on cases in which the Coast Guard was a primary law enforcement participant vice "Coast Guard only" seizures reported in previous years.

VI. PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• The Coast Guard has continued to participate in combined operations with maritime law enforcement agencies of various other nations, to include CARIBE VENTURE (with Caribbean countries and countries in Central and South America) and OPERATION LASER STRIKE (an ongoing source nation initiative). The Coast Guard assisted in the training and evaluation of source nation maritime and riverine units. Coast Guard operations in FY 1996 resulted in the seizure of 27,667 pounds of cocaine, 30,920 pounds of marijuana, 40 vessels and 117 arrests. The street value of these seized narcotics is approximately $1.87 billion.



• Increased emphasis on intelligence activities and closer coordination with other law enforcement agencies has increased the quantity and quality of intelligence cueing in support of Coast Guard interdiction efforts. Approximately 70% of Coast Guard counternarcotics operations and 50% of Coast Guard seizures are the result of either specific or general intelligence.



• The Coast Guard deployed Mobile Training Teams to source and transit zone countries to improve the capability of their law enforcement forces. During FY 1996, these teams trained over 2,100 foreign nationals in 45 countries (three times the amount in the previous year). The Coast Guard also conducted approximately 100 familiarization visits by foreign officials to Coast Guard training facilities.



• The Coast Guard Research and Development Center continues to research new methods for the interdiction of narcotics. The development of enhanced sensor packages to increase the effectiveness of detecting vessels smuggling narcotics is a high priority.



• During the first quarter of FY 1997, the Coast Guard seized over 8 times more illegal drugs than during the same period the previous year. Coast Guard cutters and aircraft deployed to Operation Frontier Shield -- designed to seal Puerto Rico and surrounding islands from illicit drug trafficking -- seized almost 14,000 lbs of cocaine, seized seven smuggling vessels, disrupted by abort or jettison 13 known trafficking events, and arrested eight traffickers. Frontier Shield demonstrated that transit zone interdiction works to keep drugs off our streets