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The naval war on drugs...

By The Armorer on September 17, 2008 | | Comments (13)
ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sept. 13, 2008) In this photo released by the U.S. Coast Guard, members of U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment 404 survey the deck of the self-propelled, semi-submersible craft seized Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008, by the guided-missile frigate USS McInerney (FFG 8). The Coast Guard law enforcement officers, embarked aboard the McInerney, seized the estimated $187 million worth of cocaine during a night raid about 350 miles west of Guatemala. The seized vessel has the capability to travel from Ecuador to San Diego, Calif. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Nico Figueroa
ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sept. 13, 2008) In this photo released by the U.S. Coast Guard, members of U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment 404 survey the deck of the self-propelled, semi-submersible craft seized Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008, by the guided-missile frigate USS McInerney (FFG 8). The Coast Guard law enforcement officers, embarked aboard the McInerney, seized the estimated $187 million worth of cocaine during a night raid about 350 miles west of Guatemala. The seized vessel has the capability to travel from Ecuador to San Diego, Calif. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Nico Figueroa

Flex and adapt, flex and adapt.   The air routes are hard to use, normal ships are hard to use, so now they're going to the semi-subs more and more.   I wouldn't want to sail one of these in rough water.  I wonder how many have swamped like the USS Monitor did?

Sometimes ya gotta wonder if the return on investment merits the costs.  Heh. Clearly, it does on the smuggler's side - I'm still not sure about it on *our* side, this war on drugs.  And people can be transported in these things, not just drugs.  Something to think about, given the fact that President Chavez has invited the Iranians and Russians back into South America.

I wonder if the work needed to build these things is sufficiently high-tech enough to generate an intel trail to the builders...

A video of the seizure is available from the Coast Guard - click here.

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13 Comments

By Sine Nomine on September 17, 2008 9:49 AM
Atlantic or PACIFIC!??.  California = Pacific Ecuador= Pacific???
 
By John of Argghhh! on September 17, 2008 10:12 AM

Well, I dunno.  The official caption says in the Atlantic, but they give the range in terms of the Pacific...    Ya sound angry!

The McInerny is homeported at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, so I'm guessing "Atlantic" is correct.

 
By mike mariani on September 17, 2008 10:20 AM
"...350 miles west of Guatemala..."

dateline is wrong; maybe that's where it was published?
 
By RetRsvMike on September 17, 2008 10:24 AM
kinda hard to get to Atlantic waters by going 350 miles west of Guatemala....

not saying it can't be done....  just that you have a reeeally long second leg for the journey.
 
By RetRsvMike on September 17, 2008 10:25 AM
...which could also explain the Coast Guard unit's designation of "404"
 
By John of Argghhh! on September 17, 2008 10:38 AM
Heh.  DoD caption writers generate more commentary... and I get angry emails from the DoD caption writer when it gets pointed out.

Mebbe it's all part of OPSEC.
 
By XBradTC on September 17, 2008 12:03 PM
The fact that DOD captions are so bad is frustrating because so many of the photos are so good.
 
By J.M. Heinrichs on September 17, 2008 4:23 PM
 "SMS Deutchland"?

Cheers
 
By Justthisguy on September 17, 2008 8:24 PM
Good one, Captain Heinrichs. I think Deutschland's crew drank for free in NYC. (in Irish bars, at least)
 
By emdfl on September 18, 2008 8:55 AM
 Should'da just used it for target practice when they came up on it.  It was obviously a "hazard to navigation".
 
By emdfl on September 18, 2008 8:57 AM
 They should 'da just used it for target practice when the came up on it.  It was obviously a hazard to navigation.
 
By Casey on September 18, 2008 1:00 PM
Lessee, here. They captured $187 million worth of cocaine. The annual US use has been estimated between $50 billion - $70 billion.

Taking the lower estimate, they grabbed a whopping 0.374 percent (yes, under four-tenths of one percent) of the annual production.

Why do I have the feeling our tax money would be better spent elsewhere?

You know, if they let the Navy keep and sell all captures, maybe they could afford a couple of those $4 billion cruisers DDX destroyers they want...
 
By Justthisguy on September 18, 2008 6:42 PM
Casey hast recht. I can think of a legitimate use for cocaine, aside from treating nosebleed, and eyeball anaesthesia. I think that every honest citizen should have a sealed bottle of cocaine powder in his medicine cabinet, prescribed for use only in the case of home invasion, seeing that said home invasion is more probably being done by government thugs than free-lance criminals, and we could all use some chemical help when going up against such odds.