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The South Florida HIDTA mission is to reduce drug availability by creating and supporting intelligence-driven task forces aimed at eliminating or reducing domestic drug trafficking and its harmful consequences through enhancement and coordination of drug trafficking control efforts among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Florida is currently the 4th most populous state and is projected to become 3rd in the nation. The region includes the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolis, the 5th most populous metropolitan region of the United States. The South Florida region remains one of the major illicit drug centers in the United States. 
Everglades |
A review of investigations underway by South Florida law enforcement anti-money laundering initiatives identified numerous illicit drugs, arms and alien trafficking groups. These activities use a wide range of money laundering schemes in South Florida. Other non-drug related financial crimes were also identified during the investigations. In addition to money laundering schemes, extraordinarily large quantities of counterfeit currency (near $7 trillion in face value) were seized during CY 2003. IRS Criminal Investigation and ICE continue to investigate criminal activities involving Black Market Peso Exchange (BMPE) money laundering. The investigations laid substantial groundwork for targeting criminal organizations exploiting import/export businesses operating in the South Florida area. As in all prior years, bulk currency smuggling as well as pick-up operations continued to be a common investigative approach used to identify money-laundering cells.
Enforcement Techniques Seaport
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South Florida waters are a major transit point for cocaine and marijuana entering the United States destined for other parts of the country.
Cocaine and marijuana smuggling via numerous maritime routes into southeast Florida originates predominantly from Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico transshipment points, as well as the eastern Caribbean off the Yucatan Peninsula/Eastern Cuba corridor. The Bahamas archipelago is a primary stockpiling, staging and transit zone for these shipments. In CY 2003, the U.S. Coast Guard reported approximately fifty percent of the non-commercial vessels drug flow destined for southeast Florida was routed through the Bahamas. Jamaica is one of the primary transshipment points for cocaine and marijuana smuggled into southeast Florida through the Bahamas. The most common means of transport is by Bahamian crewed go-fast vessels. These go-fasts will depart from the north coast of Jamaica, transit the Windward Passage inside Cuban territorial seas then rendezvous with a fishing vessel or yola in the southern Bahamas or Turks and Caicos. These vessels take custody of the load then move it into the Northern Bahamas via various means. In CY 2003 there were 33 reported non-commercial maritime smuggling events that originated from Jamaica, and their average cocaine load size from Jamaica was 500 kilograms and the marijuana load average was 1,600 pounds.
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Director
Deputy Director
Fiscal Officer
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Blue Lightning Strike Force Rapid Deployment |
South Florida provides all the essential components of a well-developed drug distribution and transshipment infrastructure. It should be viewed as a complex system that easily accommodates the needs of the Colombian-based cocaine and heroin wholesale markets as well as the Caribbean, Mexican and European drug trafficking organizations. This area has a richly diverse population. There are similarly diverse criminal elements that facilitate development of convenient “business alliances” with the various drug suppliers. There are many DTOs and each act as an independent entity without a readily evident organizational structure. Each has well-developed transportation and distribution routes, methods, and the personnel to deliver the drugs. Colombian and Caribbean-based DTOs deliver cocaine and heroin via the numerous regional air and sea ports. The Miami River has been a popular smuggling route and is frequently used by foreign coastal freighters. Deliveries into remote areas of the Everglades, private airports, and a host of other routes are also used that reflect a variety of creative and adaptive delivery methods to avoid interdiction. These include go-fast and other vessels, coastal freighters, pleasure craft, private and commercial aircraft, commercial freighters and containerized cargo, concealment on travelers, “swallowers”, cruise line passengers and crew members, and all other available modes of transportation in the region. The DTOs lines of communication are short and make use of all available ground-based transportation systems, i.e., rail, bus, and automotive/trucking. This makes establishing delivery methods and schedules efficient, flexible, secure, and greatly increases their probabilities of success. Controlling the flow of drugs into the regional ports, as well as the highways, is most difficult. Personnel security and corruption in the ports is but one concern. There is a continuing increase in volume of inbound and outbound containerized cargo and the number of cruise ships’ passengers and crew members at the three major regional seaports. The annual tonnage at the regional Port of Miami alone is over 9 million tons and steadily increasing. This volume of containerized cargo represents increasing inspection requirements as DTOs will probably continue to attempt use of the containerized cargo shipments as a means to smuggle illicit drugs (inbound) and undeclared bulk currency (outbound). For example, drugs have been detected hidden among a variety of legal imports (e.g., fruit, seafood, and many other products). The regional ports will therefore continue to present inspection challenges as the volume of international commerce is expected to continue its increasing trends. Additionally, there are similar challenges for the other regional ports to include the Port of Palm Beach, Port Everglades and, to a lesser degree, the Port of Key West. |
