One if by Air, Two if by Sea

In the Air

Helping cover the thousands of feather miles of open ocean are the planes and helicopters in Air and Marine Operations ’ armory in the region. The Dash-8, along with the Black Hawk and A-Star helicopters, make certain no one can hide precisely beyond the horizon view of the mariners down at sea level. “ We have to be in a defensive modality for 360 degrees, ” said Aviation Enforcement Agent Adalberto Mercado, the operations officeholder for the Caribbean Air and Marine Branch in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. “ Because we ’ re getting human and drug smugglers from the Dominican Republic, narcotics from Venezuela, Colombia, through the Virgin Islands channels sometimes. We get hit from everywhere here. ” Like their counterparts on the body of water, pilots gather intelligence before they head out but then trust on their own detective work to make surely all bases are covered, ready to shift as the badly guys try to outsmart them.

“ Smugglers change tactics, and guess what ? We do the like, ” Mercado said. “ They are creative in the ways they bring in the drugs and the way they smuggle money out. We have to be proactive. ” once the crew detected a leery vessel, they will keep eyes on it until they can vector – in Air and Marine Operations language – the law enforcement assets on the water, equally well as documenting the bust with television for future trials. All of this is done with guard in the forefront of everyone ’ randomness minds. “ I ’ thousand glad if the job gets done safely, because everybody wants to go dwelling, ” Mercado said. An air out interdiction agent inspects a DHC-8 aircraft prior to flight operations at the Caribbean Air and Marine Branch in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. photograph by Glenn Fawcett

In Partnership with Other Law Enforcement Agencies

The Caribbean Air and Marine Operations Center, in Levittown, Puerto Rico, coordinates its massive efforts within CBP. Furthermore, the Caribbean Border Interagency Group brings assets from other law enforcement partners, such as the U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Justice, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Drug Enforcement Administration and the local law enforcement group Puerto Rico United Forces of Rapid Action – beneficial known by its spanish acronym “ FURA. ” In addition to its own full complement of boats, planes and helicopters, Air and Marine Operations in the area relies on the assets the other law enforcement partners bring.

Seen from the window of a DHC-8 aircraft, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter arrives
to take custody of roughly 10 illegal immigrants apprehended at sea as they
attempted to cross the Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and
Puerto Rico in a small boat. Photo by Glenn Fawcett Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Lance Wiser is the officer in load at Coast Guard Station San Juan, Puerto Rico, and has worked for 18 years on cutters and small boats. He said working with CBP comes naturally for his outgrowth of the service. “ We parcel a fortune of the same goals and missions : counter-drug and illegal [ entrant ] interdictions, ” he said. “ We work with [ CBP ] on a regular basis. Our tactics are very similar in enforcing the laws. ” Wiser said it ’ s common to see Coast Guard police enforcement teams on Air and Marine Operations boats, and Air and Marine Operations agents on Coast Guard vessels, angstrom well as joint patrols with CBP and Coast Guard vessels, complementing each other to enforce the laws. “ We are utilizing each other ’ randomness resources and assets as effective push multipliers, which allows for increased coverage and more effective and effective operations, ” Wiser said. One model of the great teamwork between the agencies was when a gravy boat from the Coast Guard Station in San Juan was vectored into a prey of interest at night by Air and Marine Operations aircraft. The Coast Guard crowd did not have a ocular of the smugglers until they were within 100 yards. CBP eyes in the sky were able to put them right on prey and stopped the cargo of 40 kilograms of cocaine. “ The news is better, and we now try to tackle the intel with all of the resources, not only from Air and Marine Operations, but from Coast Guard and anybody else, ” Morales said. “ That ’ s why that coordination feat has been a fortune better. ”

100% When the Call Comes

Morales said the presence on the seas and in the skies in this region of the Caribbean continues to increase as the drug trade in the region spiked. New facilities, such as the one at the San Juan airport that opened a few years ago, vitamin a well more pilots and detector operators, give his people the tools they need to patrol this authoritative region of the world and keep America safe.

“ Our mission, obviously, is to promote the aeronautical and maritime operations further away from the continental United States in support of the CBP mission as a hale, ” Morales said. back on the Coastal Interceptor Vessel, Crespo said the drone of the powerful idle engines that could lull a person to sleep, roar to liveliness in an instantaneous, pushing the crew to breathtaking speeds above the wavetops and snapping them to attention, the moment that voice comes on the radio, the consequence the crew gets the call. “ Everyone goes to 100 % in an clamant when the call comes, ” he said. “ That ’ s what we train for. That ’ s what we do. ”