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Regional Drug Control
The key requirements for successful drug
interdiction are surveillance and presence in areas where the possibility of
contraband smuggling exists. The capability to respond to intelligence
information and known incidents of drug smuggling such as air drops or mother
ship rendezvous as they occur is required for this activity. The ability
to dispatch boarding teams and maintain a continuous on scene presence, thus
providing a visible deterrence to the smuggler, are important mission
requirements.
Our law
enforcement assets must have the ability to compel compliance with Coast Guard
law enforcement authority.
The hemispheric Organisation of American
States has a commission on drug control - the INTER-AMERICAN DRUG ABUSE
CONTROL COMMISSION, CICAD, which met
in Trinidad and Tobago for the XXVIII Regular Session this past Oct. 24-28,
2000.
The Commission participants there worked up and commented on a Draft
Agreement on Caribbean area maritime drug control. If this agreement is
implemented and actively pursued in the field by law enforcement officials
this would impact the international drug trade.
The agreement will include not only CARICOM nations, but also The Dominican
Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, the local territories of EU nations France,
Netherlands, and the UK, Mexico, Canada and the US (icl. US territories),
most Central American nations and Panama, and maybe Cuba.
Below is some of the language excerpted from CICAD/doc.1076/00 rev.1
ARTICLE 14 - MARITIME LAW ENFORCEMENT PROGRAMS FOR THE CARIBBEAN AREA
1. The Parties shall establish a regional and subregional maritime law
enforcement programs among their law enforcement authorities. Each Party
shall designate a coordinator to organize its participation and to identify
the vessels, aircraft and officials involved in the program to the other
Parties.
2. The Parties undertake to assign qualified personnel to regional and
subregional coordination centers established for the purpose of coordinating
the detection, surveillance and interception of vessels and aircraft engaged
in illicit traffic by and over the sea.
ARTICLE 16 - Shipriders embark on law enforcement vessels of any of the
participating Parties; enforce the laws to suppress illicit traffic of the
designating Party in the designating Party's waters, or seaward therefrom in
the exercise of the right of hot pursuit or otherwise in accordance with
international law; authorize the entry of the law enforcement vessels on
which they are embarked into and navigation within the waters of the
designating Party; authorize the law enforcement vessels on which they are
embarked to conduct counter drug patrols in the waters of the designating
Party; authorize law enforcement officials of the participating Parties to
assist in the enforcement of the laws to suppress illicit traffic of the
designating Party; and advise and assist law enforcement officials of the
participating Parties in the conduct of boardings of vessels to enforce the
laws to suppress illicit traffic of the participating Parties."
ARTICLE 19 - A Party may request aircraft support from other Parties for
assistance, including monitoring and surveillance, in suppressing illicit
traffic. Each Party permits aircraft of participating Parties, when engaged
in law enforcement operations or operations in support of law enforcement
activities, to overfly its territory and waters; and subject to the laws of
that Party and of the participating Parties, order aircraft suspected of
trafficking in illegal drugs to land in its territory."
Other parts of the draft agreement:
For those situations when law enforcement officials of one Party encounter a
vessel flying the flag of another Party or claiming to be registered in that
Party, located seaward of any State's territorial sea, and they have
reasonable grounds to suspect that the vessel is engaged in illicit traffic,
subject to paragraph 2, this Agreement constitutes the authorization of the
claimed flag State Party for the boarding and search of the suspect vessel,
its cargo and the persons found on board by such officials. If there is no
response from the claimed flag State within two (2) hours of its receipt of
the oral request, the requesting Party should be deemed to have been
authorized to board the suspect vessel for the purpose of inspecting the
vessel's documents, questioning the persons on board, and searching the
vessel and cargo to determine if it is engaged in illicit traffic."
This part talks about asset seizure in regional/non-territorial waters:
Assets seized in consequence of any operation undertaken seaward of the
territorial sea of any State pursuant to this Agreement shall be disposed of
in accordance with the laws of the seizing Party.
What this means for the Caribbean Coast Guard:
Law enforcement and drug control are policy areas directly part of the CCG.
This draft agreement states:
Regional Cooperation Programs
ARTICLE 3 - REGIONAL CO-OPERATION PROGRAMS FOR THE CARIBBEAN AREA
1. Recognizing that, as the nature of illicit traffic urgently requires the
Parties to foster regional and subregional cooperation, the Parties shall
take the steps necessary to meet the objectives of this Agreement, including
the enhancement of existing or development of new international
institutions, on a cost-effective basis, and the coordination and
implementation of cooperation. Such institutions shall be made the object of
separate arrangements.
2. Each Party is encouraged to enter into subregional or bilateral
agreements established to meet the objectives of this Agreement, consistent
with Article 9 of the 1988 Convention and Article 52 of the United Nations
Charter. |
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