Joint Service Airborne Use of Force
Story by Lt. j.g. Ronald D. Bledsoe, LEDET 408 TACLET South
MIAMI -- The U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard reached a significant milestone in the war on drugs and made smuggling narcotics into the United States more difficult. The USS John L. Hall was assigned with Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 408 from the U.S. Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team in Miami to patrol the Caribbean Sea for detection and monitoring of suspected narcotics smugglers. These units, working together, successfully completed the first joint service airborne use of force involving Coast Guard and Navy assets.
During the early hours of Sept. 10 a Navy helicopter from the USS Hall was on routine patrol north of the coast of Colombia when it spotted a fast
moving, surface contact on its radar. As the helicopter closed on the radar contact, the crew noticed the vessel was on a northerly course at approximately 30 mph. The radar operator on the helicopter relayed the developing situation to the Hall and informed the Coast Guard LEDET Officer in Charge. The Coast Guard officer immediately contacted the Joint Interagency Task Force South located in Key West, Fla., who is responsible for all detection and monitoring of air and surface contacts in the Caribbean. As the task force was informed of the situation, the Hall made best speed to intercept the suspicious contact. Upon recommendation from the Coast Guard officer in charge, tactical control was shifted from the task force in Key West to Coast Guard District Seven headquartered in Miami and the Coast Guard Ensign was hoisted on the Hall.
Photograph courtesy of TACLET South.
Once tactical control was shifted to the Coast Guard, law enforcement actions were enabled. The helicopter was able to track the suspect vessel using both radar and their infrared camera which was able to display video to the Hall. The video was real time and could be seen by the crew of the Hall coordinating the interdiction efforts. As the crew of the helicopter reported its observations of the go-fast vessel, it was being relayed through the Coast Guard officer in charge to the law enforcement duty Officer at District Seven in Miami. The helicopter reported that the contact was approximately 30- to-40 feet in length, two outboard engines, four persons on board and numerous fuel drums located on deck. Additionally, the vessel had no name painted on its hull, no flag was being flown to indicate nationality of the vessel and there was no registry to identify the vessel in any way. With this information, District Seven granted permission from the District Seven commander to stop the vessel including the use of warning shots and disabling fire to conduct a right of visit boarding.
The helicopter was informed that they were granted permission to stop the vessel including the use of warning shots and disabling fire. Before proceeding with warning shots and disabling fire, the helicopter must first proceed with the signaling phase of the interdiction process. During the signaling phase, the vessel is contacted via VHF radio in both English and Spanish to stop and prepare to be boarded. The helicopter also maneuvers close to the vessel all in an effort to stop the vessel before employing warning shots and disabling fire. The helicopter proceeded through the parts of the signaling phase, and the vessel proceeded at a high rate of speed away from the helicopter. Assessing the signals, maneuvering and ineffective radio calls, the helicopter crew prepared to employ warning shots.
Photograph courtesy of TACLET South.
Under the agreement between the Navy and Coast Guard, all warning shots and disabling fire must come from a qualified Coast Guard aerial gunner and observer. Once the observer verifies that all parts of the signaling phase checklist have been completed, he or she coordinates with the aircraft commander that they are ready to proceed with warning shots.
Once ready to employ the warning shots, the aerial gunner aims the shots just in front of the vessel's bow using the mounted M240 machine gun. During this instance, warning shots were fired across the go-fast's bow and immediately the go-fast stopped and became dead in the water. With the vessel stopped, the helicopter relayed its current position and the Hall adjusted course to the new location of the go-fast vessel.
As the helicopter was continuing to monitor the vessel, some of the crew moved forward in the vessel, opened a compartment and proceeded to throw large objects overboard, which appeared to be bales of narcotics. On board the Hall, all this was being viewed on monitors and was all being recorded on video tape. This was relayed immediately back to District Seven, and the Hall continued to close on the position. The helicopter flew over the debris field and dropped a Coast Guard datum marker buoy, which is normally used to mark the position of search and rescue victims and emits a radio signal which can be heard by nearby aircraft and vessels. The helicopter continued to mark the position of the go-fast vessel and debris field until it had to return to the ship and refuel. Shortly thereafter, the Hall arrived on scene, and a Coast Guard team boarded the vessel and took control of it and its crew.
The initial purpose of the boarding was to identify nationality of the vessel and crew in order to establish authority and jurisdiction for the Coast Guard boarding team to be legally present on the vessel. The master of the vessel failed to provide any documentation for the vessel to identify his claim that the vessel was Colombian flagged. This was relayed to District Seven, who later assimilated the vessel to statelessness status and U.S. law was able to be enforced on the crew for suspicion of smuggling narcotics. The crew was detained and 1,465 kilos of narcotics were recovered from the sea.
With the successful implementation of aerial use of force from a U.S. Navy helicopter, drug smugglers will have to reevaluate their tactics of trafficking narcotics. This again proves the effectiveness of interagency relations and operations not only in the war on drugs but in other mission areas.
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