Coast Guard Shooters Disable Boats
By David Briscoe
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, September 14, 1999; 3:33 a.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Coast Guard sharpshooter Charlie Hopkins focused a little red dot from his laser sight on the engines of a fast-moving boat in the Caribbean and fired three .50-caliber shells, stopping the
drug-laden craft at sea.
Hopkins, nicknamed ``El Diablo'' by his crewmates, is part of a previously
secret Coast Guard operation that has started to interdict drug boats in international waters. It is the first time the Coast Guard has been authorized to fire from the air at water craft since Prohibition in the 1920s,
when fixed-wing aircraft went after liquor smugglers.
Top officials of the Transportation Department, the Coast Guard and the
White House anti-drug office disclosed the new tactics at a news conference Monday outside the Transportation Department. They spoke in front of an MH90 Enforcer helicopter, one of several specially equipped commercial helicopters leased for the operation.
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. James E. Loy ruled out any chance that commercial fishermen or pleasure boaters will be targeted by the sharpshooters, who officials said are operating only in international waters south of Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Rules require identification and extensive warnings before aggressive tactics are employed.
``This special show is not going to be coming to a theater near you,'' Loy said as an assurance to private boaters.
And Hopkins, a petty officer second class from Winslow, Maine, said he fired only at the smugglers' engines in a successful assault Aug. 16. He got his nickname, Spanish for ``the devil,'' because his .50-caliber Robar rifle bears the packing number 999. ``Depending on which way you hold it, it
carries the sign of the devil (666,)'' Hopkins said.
``We're still humanitarian. We just want to stop the flow,'' he said in an interview. He said the helicopters carry life rafts for the smugglers in case a shot accidentally causes a fire or sinks their vessel.
Hopkins said his powerful rifle can hit a target from more than a mile away, but the helicopters hover much closer as they chase the open-hulled, low-profile ``Go-Fasts'' or ``Super Smugglers'' across the Caribbean. Officials say the drug-running craft are rarely armed, and none of the intercepted smugglers have fired on the helicopters.
Threatening action would allow Coast Guard sharpshooters to use defensive deadly fire in return.
Use of the small boats, which carry about a ton of cocaine and enough fuel to travel 700 miles, has doubled since 1996, officials say. They now carry more than 85 percent of all maritime drug shipments with an average
of a trip a day over the past year.
The sea encounters have led to capture of 13 crew members and netted more than three tons of cocaine destined for U.S. streets, said Barry McCaffrey, White House drug control director.
He said those and other operations in the past year brought cocaine confiscation to a record 53 tons, with a street value of $3.7 billion. More than 400 tons is estimated to reach U.S. shores each year.
``We have made the drug smugglers afraid. We will now make them disappear,'' McCaffrey said.
In addition to the Aug. 16 incident, helicopters stopped boats on Aug. 26 and on Sept. 3. An initial operation on May 28 frightened two smugglers into jettisoning their cargo before shots were fired but also led to their arrests.
Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, who oversees the Coast Guard, said the effort dubbed Operation New Frontier will lead to other high-tech moves against drug smuggling. The Clinton administration is asking for
$17.8 billion to fight illegal drugs next year.
A Coast Guard background briefing provided descriptions of the dramatic encounters, and released videotape of two incidents showed helicopters as they stopped speeding vessels.
The use of nonlethal force also included machine-gun fire across boats' bows, use of a ``stingball'' that exploded into a shower of rubber pellets and deployment of a special net to entangle a boat's engines. Use of the
sharpshooter is a last resort to stop the boats.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
By David Briscoe
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, September 14, 1999; 3:33 a.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Coast Guard sharpshooter Charlie Hopkins focused a little red dot from his laser sight on the engines of a fast-moving boat in the Caribbean and fired three .50-caliber shells, stopping the
drug-laden craft at sea.
Hopkins, nicknamed ``El Diablo'' by his crewmates, is part of a previously
secret Coast Guard operation that has started to interdict drug boats in international waters. It is the first time the Coast Guard has been authorized to fire from the air at water craft since Prohibition in the 1920s,
when fixed-wing aircraft went after liquor smugglers.
Top officials of the Transportation Department, the Coast Guard and the
White House anti-drug office disclosed the new tactics at a news conference Monday outside the Transportation Department. They spoke in front of an MH90 Enforcer helicopter, one of several specially equipped commercial helicopters leased for the operation.
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. James E. Loy ruled out any chance that commercial fishermen or pleasure boaters will be targeted by the sharpshooters, who officials said are operating only in international waters south of Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Rules require identification and extensive warnings before aggressive tactics are employed.
``This special show is not going to be coming to a theater near you,'' Loy said as an assurance to private boaters.
And Hopkins, a petty officer second class from Winslow, Maine, said he fired only at the smugglers' engines in a successful assault Aug. 16. He got his nickname, Spanish for ``the devil,'' because his .50-caliber Robar rifle bears the packing number 999. ``Depending on which way you hold it, it
carries the sign of the devil (666,)'' Hopkins said.
``We're still humanitarian. We just want to stop the flow,'' he said in an interview. He said the helicopters carry life rafts for the smugglers in case a shot accidentally causes a fire or sinks their vessel.
Hopkins said his powerful rifle can hit a target from more than a mile away, but the helicopters hover much closer as they chase the open-hulled, low-profile ``Go-Fasts'' or ``Super Smugglers'' across the Caribbean. Officials say the drug-running craft are rarely armed, and none of the intercepted smugglers have fired on the helicopters.
Threatening action would allow Coast Guard sharpshooters to use defensive deadly fire in return.
Use of the small boats, which carry about a ton of cocaine and enough fuel to travel 700 miles, has doubled since 1996, officials say. They now carry more than 85 percent of all maritime drug shipments with an average
of a trip a day over the past year.
The sea encounters have led to capture of 13 crew members and netted more than three tons of cocaine destined for U.S. streets, said Barry McCaffrey, White House drug control director.
He said those and other operations in the past year brought cocaine confiscation to a record 53 tons, with a street value of $3.7 billion. More than 400 tons is estimated to reach U.S. shores each year.
``We have made the drug smugglers afraid. We will now make them disappear,'' McCaffrey said.
In addition to the Aug. 16 incident, helicopters stopped boats on Aug. 26 and on Sept. 3. An initial operation on May 28 frightened two smugglers into jettisoning their cargo before shots were fired but also led to their arrests.
Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, who oversees the Coast Guard, said the effort dubbed Operation New Frontier will lead to other high-tech moves against drug smuggling. The Clinton administration is asking for
$17.8 billion to fight illegal drugs next year.
A Coast Guard background briefing provided descriptions of the dramatic encounters, and released videotape of two incidents showed helicopters as they stopped speeding vessels.
The use of nonlethal force also included machine-gun fire across boats' bows, use of a ``stingball'' that exploded into a shower of rubber pellets and deployment of a special net to entangle a boat's engines. Use of the
sharpshooter is a last resort to stop the boats.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
