Statement by:
Michael S. Vigil
Special Agent in Charge
San Juan Field Division
Drug Enforcement Administration
United States Department of Justice
Before the:
House Government Reform Committee
Date:
January 4, 2000
Note: This document may not reflect changes made in actual delivery.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the
Drug Enforcement Administration regarding Puerto Rico. With your permission,
I wish to submit my written statement for the record.
As you have heard from Mr. Ledwith, the Caribbean is a major transit zone
for drugs entering the United States from South America. Within that area,
Puerto Rico provides a particularly significant link between South America
and the Continental United States. The island is singular in the
opportunities it provides for traffickers, as well as the challenges it
creates for law enforcement.
DRUG TRAFFICKING THROUGH PUERTO RICO:
More than ever, international drug trafficking organizations utilize
Puerto Rico as a major point of entry for the transshipment of multi-ton
quantities of cocaine being smuggled into the United States. Puerto Rico has
become known as a gateway for drugs destined for cities on the East Coast of
the United States. Puerto Rico's 300-mile coastline, the vast number of
isolated cays, and six million square miles of open water between the U.S.
and Colombia, make the region difficult to patrol and ideal for a variety of
smuggling methods.
Puerto Rico is an active Caribbean sea and air transportation
thoroughfare. The island boasts the third busiest seaport in North America
and fourteenth busiest in the world, as well as approximately 75 daily
commercial airline flights to the Continental United States. This presents an
attractive logistical opportunity for drug trafficking organizations. The
sheer volume of commercial activity is the traffickers' greatest asset.
Criminal organizations have utilized their financial capabilities to corrupt
mechanics; longshoremen; airline employees; and ticket counter agents; as
well as government officials and others, whose corrupt practices broaden the
scope of the trafficking.
Not only has corruption of legitimate business become a problem on the
island, but Colombian drug trafficking organizations will routinely pay local
criminal transportation organizations up to 20 percent of their product
(cocaine) for their services. This form of payment has acted as a catalyst
for the development of a very profitable, but competitive, local distribution
market. The interaction between Colombian drug traffickers and local
transporters, along with the resulting distribution market, is commonly
referred to as the "spill-over effect." This "spill-over effect" has resulted
in an increase in violence and bloodshed within the Puerto Rican community.
It is estimated that about 80 percent of all documented homicides in Puerto
Rico are drug related. Law enforcement efforts are further impeded by the
close-knit relationships shared by the drug trafficking organizations which
have developed and fostered over the years.
Only 360 miles from Colombia's North Coast and 80 miles from the East
Coast of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, is easily reachable by twin
engine aircraft hauling payloads of 500 to 700 kilograms of cocaine. The
"go-fast" boats make their round trip cocaine runs to the Southern coast of
Puerto Rico in less than a day. Today, cocaine and heroin traffickers from
Colombia have transformed Puerto Rico into the largest staging area in the
Caribbean for illicit drugs destined for the U.S. market.
Once the illicit narcotics are smuggled into Puerto Rico, they are
routinely stored in secluded, mountainous areas of the island until
transportation to the Continental United States can be arranged. The
contraband is then repackaged into smaller shipments in preparation for the
move. The narcotics are smuggled out of Puerto Rico via commercial maritime
vessels and on commercial airlines, either in the possession of couriers, or
concealed in cargo.
PERSONNEL CHALLENGES:
The open use of the Caribbean as a narcotics transshipment center has
created a public safety crisis in Puerto Rico, and DEA must assign resources
to the island to address this threat. Although this is necessary, we have had
continuing difficulties retaining federal law enforcement personnel in the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Few personnel from the Continental United States
are willing to accept a transfer to Puerto Rico, and those who do so often
want to leave soon after arrival. Such quality of life issues as inadequate
public services, unreliable utilities, limited accessibility of medical care,
the high cost of living, an exclusionary social structure, limited
availability of appropriate schools for dependent children, and the high
incidence of crime have contributed to early turnover and family
separations.
As a result, DEA has in place a variety of incentive packages for Special
Agents, Diversion Investigators, and Intelligence Analysts relocating to
Puerto Rico.
- Relocation incentives of up to 25% of base pay (not to exceed $15,000) are tied directly to remaining in Puerto Rico.
- a Foreign Language Bonus Program of up to 5% of base pay;
- a Tour of Duty Office of Preference offer upon completion of the assignment;
- Administrative leave available to find adequate housing and complete moving arrangements;
- five year, Government funded access, in the San Juan area, to Department of Defense schools (This now includes the children of support personnel.);
- additional Home Leave, granted upon extension of assignment;
- Security assistance for threatened employees, ranging from home and personal automobile security systems to removal from the area;
- a 10% Cost of Living adjustment; and
- Department of Defense Commissary privileges for individuals on tour agreements.
- an expanded Family Liaison program, based on the current FBI program of one specialist, to include additional staff and resources and to provide assistance to all Department of Justice employees, including DEA (This has been funded in the FY2000 Appropriation at the $500,000 level.); and
- the provision of security systems to homes and personal vehicles of all Drug Enforcement Administration employees in Puerto Rico.
Since FY 1997, DEA has increased the special agent resources to the
Caribbean. In that time, a total of 47 agents have been added to the
Caribbean Field Division, 36 of which are assigned to Puerto Rico. The
remaining agents have been assigned to regional offices within the Caribbean
Field Division, including Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Santo Domingo.
Congress has also provided $20,400,000.00 since 1997 for advanced
technical, maritime, and aviation equipment (including two helicopters) to
support regional operations in the Caribbean.
In our FY 2000 appropriation, DEA received an additional 17 positions (11
Special Agents) and $2.4 million for drug enforcement operations in Puerto
Rico, as well as the funds to enhance quality of life issues, as noted
above.
ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS/INITIATIVES:
There are presently 74 Special Agents, constituting six enforcement
groups, assigned to the Caribbean Field Division (CFD). Five groups are
earmarked for specialized enforcement initiatives. They are as follows: one
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), two task forces, a money
laundering group, and an airport group. Each group possesses expertise in a
specific domain and fully exploits it, to thwart the traffickers.
Since no single agency has adequate resources to investigate all drug
trafficking organizations in the Caribbean, each task force group pools the
investigative talents of the local police departments with the federal
specialists and leverage available to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
This combination results in highly effective drug enforcement investigations
and prosecutions.
As part of the United States, Puerto Rico serves as an entry point for
drug money coming into our banking system. Whether it also serves as an exit
point of the United States is not known. In addition, U.S. currency, in small
denominations, is brought from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. It is
declared as money coming from various casas de cambio (money exchange houses)
in Santo Domingo, and once in Puerto Rico, deposited into accounts in the
name of Dominican Republic casas de cambio. At this point, the proceeds are
funneled back to Panama or Colombia or integrated into the economy of Puerto
Rico. As such, the money laundering group focuses on these financial
transactions as well as the movement of bulk shipments of small denomination
U.S. currency into and out of the United States.
Since being designated as a HIDTA area in 1995, the HIDTA group has
yielded substantial results in drug interdiction efforts in the region. This
group has developed into a strong partnership of DEA, FBI, U.S. Postal
Inspectors, INS and Puerto Rican IRS personnel, targeting mid-upper level
drug trafficking organizations.
UNICORN System:
The Caribbean Field Division identified a void in drug-related
intelligence and communications among the Caribbean nations. In response, the
UNICORN system (Unified Caribbean On-Line Regional Network) was instituted.
With this system, participating Caribbean law enforcement agencies can share
photographs, data, and information concerning various targets, locations, and
groups involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. The Drug
Enforcement Administration loans the equipment to participating agencies and
provides training to host-nation counterparts, as well as installing and
implementing the system.
The UNICORN system has already reaped tremendous benefits, as exhibited in
the success of Operations Columbus and Genesis. These two recent enforcement
operations, planned and coordinated by the Caribbean Field Division, have
severely disrupted drug trafficking organizations throughout the Caribbean
region. The first, Operation Genesis, was a bi-national initiative designed
to foster cooperation between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Due to a
mutual, long-standing mistrust, Haiti and the Dominican Republic had never
before coordinated anti-drug efforts. This has effectively curtailed the
ability of law enforcement agencies in the region and, in effect, bolstered
the resourcefulness of the drug smuggling organizations. The second action,
titled Operation Columbus, was the largest enforcement operation, to date, in
the Caribbean. This endeavor was a multi-national operation, comprised of
fifteen nations and their respective law enforcement agencies.
Operation Genesis:
The island of Hispañola, by virtue of its geographic proximity
between the source zone countries and the United States, is frequently
utilized by drug trafficking organizations. Operation Genesis was designed to
respond to this situation and to foster and maintain cooperation between
Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the two countries on that island. This
operation, which was conducted during November 1998, resulted in 126 arrests
throughout Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Prior to Operation Genesis,
Haiti and the Dominican Republic had never before coordinated their anti-drug
efforts. However, the results garnered through Operation Genesis will
undoubtedly assist in improving the ability to coordinate anti-drug efforts
on the island of Hispañola.
The long-term objectives for Operation Genesis were to promote the
exchange of information between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, facilitate
the integration and coordination of Haitian and Dominican anti-drug efforts,
establish a mechanism that will support the counter-drug effort, develop
institutional mentoring and training, and disrupt drug trafficking operations
that are being conducted on the island of Hispañola.
The operation was executed in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, using
roadblocks at strategic locations and border crossing points, interdiction
operations at the international airports and seaports, and United States
Coast Guard maritime interdiction along the southern coast of
Hispañola.
Operation Genesis resulted in unprecedented exchanges of law enforcement
cooperation by both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. As a result, the
Haitian National Police (HNP) assigned an officer and an analyst to the
Dominican National Drug Control Agency's (DNCD) Santo Domingo office, and
four (4) more HNP officers were stationed at Dominican border crossing
points. DNCD officials, on the other hand, were assigned to the HNP
headquarters' at Port-au-Prince, as well as several Haitian border crossing
points.
The exchange of information was further expedited by the UNICORN system,
which facilitated data base checks of suspicious persons and vehicles that
were stopped. The information was sent to the Caribbean Field Division
(CFD)/San Juan office where system checks were performed. The information was
then sent back to the HNP via the UNICORN system.
Operation Columbus:
Operation Columbus was a multi-national regional effort involving the
island nations of the Caribbean, in addition to Colombia, Venezuela, and
Panama. The operation focused on air, land and maritime interdiction,
eradication, and clandestine airstrip denial. DEA's Santo Domingo Country
Office and Trinidad and Tobago Country Office served as the northern and
southern command posts. The UNICORN system was used to facilitate the
exchange of actionable intelligence. Operation Columbus's principle
objectives were:
1. The development of a cohesive/cooperative environment among source and transit countries,
2. Disruption of drug trafficking activities,
3. The consolidation of the counterdrug efforts in the Caribbean transit zone,
4. The continued development of a comprehensive regional strategy.Operation Columbus was planned and initiated by the CFD to severely impact the drug trafficking activities in the Caribbean and source country areas. Columbus was implemented through interdiction and eradication efforts, enforcement operations involving the use of undercover agents, confidential sources, Title III intercepts, and surveillance.
The final arrest and seizure statistics for Operation Columbus were
unprecedented for this region. There were in excess of 1,290 arrests, as well
as the seizure of 900 kilograms of cocaine and nine kilograms of heroin. Over
38 weapons, 26 vehicles, 27 vessels, three laboratories and one aircraft were
seized. In addition, 1,097 metric tons of marijuana were eradicated.
It became evident during the course of this massive undertaking that a
coordinated effort among all the respective participants was necessary.
Through the diligence of all those involved, these operations struck a solid
blow to the Caribbean-based trafficking groups. Clearly, concerted law
enforcement efforts, such as Operations Genesis and Columbus, will
significantly enhance our ability to eliminate drug trafficking organizations
throughout the Caribbean region.
CONCLUSION
The transit of illegal drugs through Puerto Rico creates unique challenges
to law enforcement. DEA is aggressively addressing the trafficking threat to
Puerto Rico and working to improve the ability of DEA personnel assigned to
the island to confront the threat.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee. I appreciate the interest you and the subcommittee have shown in DEA's drug law enforcement efforts in Puerto Rico. At this time, I will be happy to answer any questions you or the other committee members may have.
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