III. Goals, Objectives, Targets, andPerformance Measures of Effectiveness
Goals, Objectives, and Targets
| Goal 4: | Shield America's air, land, and sea frontiers from the drug threat. |
The United States is obligated to protect its citizens from the threats posed by illegal drugs crossing our borders. Interdiction in the transit and arrival zones disrupts drug flow, increases risks to traffickers, drives them to less efficient routes and methods, and prevents significant quantities of drugs from reaching the United States. Interdiction operations also produce information that can be used by domestic law enforcement agencies against trafficking organizations.
Each year, more than sixty-eight million passengers arrive in the United States aboard 830,000 commercial and private aircraft. Another eight million individuals arrive by sea, and a staggering 365 million people cross our land borders driving approximately 115 million vehicles. Ten million trucks and cargo containers and ninety thousand merchant and passenger ships also enter the United States annually, carrying some four hundred million metric tons of cargo. Amid this voluminous trade, drug traffickers seek to hide approximately three-hundred metric tons of cocaine, thirteen metric tons of heroin, vast quantities of marijuana, and smaller amounts of other illegal substances.
Objective 1: Conduct flexible operations to detect, disrupt, deter, and seize illegal drugs in transit to the United States and at U.S. borders.
Rationale: Our ability to interdict illegal drugs is made more difficult by the volume of drug traffic and the ease with which traffickers have switched modes and routes. Efforts to interrupt the flow of drugs require technologically advanced and capable forces, supported by timely intelligence that is well coordinated and responsive to changing drug-trafficking patterns.
Objective 2: Improve the coordination and effectiveness of U.S. drug law enforcement programs withparticular emphasis on the Southwest Border, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Rationale: The Southwest border, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands continue to be principal axes for illegal drugs destined for the United States. We need to focus our efforts in these places -- without neglecting other avenues of entry -- by improving intelligence and information-guided operations and supporting law-enforcement agencies with technology. Flexible law-enforcement operations will allow us to attack criminal organizations, retain the initiative, and curtail the penetration of drugs into the United States.
Objective 3: Improve bilateral and regional cooperation with Mexico as well as other cocaine and heroin transit zone countries in order to reduce the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.
Rationale: Mexico, both a transit zone for cocaine and heroin and a source country for heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana, is key to reducing the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. Also important in this regard are Caribbean, Central America, and Asian nations. The more we can work cooperatively with these countries to enhance the rule of law, the better will be our control of illegal drugs. Mutual interests are best served by joint commitment to reducing drug trafficking.
Objective 4: Support and highlight research and technology -- including the development of scientific information and data -- to detect, disrupt, deter, and seize illegal drugs in transit to the United States and at U.S. borders.
Rationale: Scientific research and applied technologies offer a significant opportunity to interrupt the flow of illegal drugs. The more reliable our detection, monitoring, apprehension, and search capabilities become, the more likely we are to turn back or seize illegal drugs.
