Puerto Rico, Drug Corridor to the Mainland United States

[RobJohnson]

[justify][/justify]

San Juan, Puerto Rico –  On the western coast of Puerto Rico, it’s wheels up for yet another night of high-tech hunting. Hunting, for cocaine smugglers.
 
“This boat looks interesting,” says officer Creighton Skeen, as he sits onboard a specially designed US Customs and Border Protection airplane. He and his partner typically sit alone, dimly lit in green, staring at and analyzing their wide-screens, which show the boats below.
 


On these routine missions, officer Skeen uses infra-red cameras, radar and one-the-ground intelligence to alert CBP 4 engine fast boats on the water when and where to interdict. This night, they’re focused on the 60 mile stretch between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
 
"Before, we didn't' see as many mother ships coming to Puerto Rico,” says Skeen. “Now, they're becoming ordinary."
 
And almost as ordinary, enormous busts like the one this week along the coast of Ponce. So much cocaine, it took a production line of people to haul heavy bag after heavy bag from the police cargo van to the table. Some of the cocaine bricks were labeled with a sticker showing a drawing of a threatening tiger, to discern which drug dealing organization supplied the coke, and who is to be paid the $20,000 for the kilo. By the time it arrives in the states, that kilo sells for $25,000.
 
This bust in total, “approximately 1000 kilos,” says Pedro Jasner, Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration, “with a street value of 80-million dollars."

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/08/09/puerto-rico-drug-corridor-to-united-states/#ixzz23MZCiNaA

They have asked for more help in fighting the  drug traffic....

“

We need more resources and this is the proof,” says Hector Pesquera, Puerto Rico Police Superintendent.
 
"We're not just saying it, we're showing it. 80% of this, 800 kilos, would have been going to the northeast corridor."
 
What Puerto Rico’s police and Governor have been calling for is initiating the Caribbean Border Initiative, more money and resources dedicated to reducing the flow of drugs from South America to the US Mainland. The Southwest Border Initiative along the Mexican border resulted in a doubling—if not tripling—of officers there.  But due to apparent funding issues, the White House—which didn’t comment for this story--hasn’t committed.

The Puerto Rican murder rate is now 6 times higher than in the states