Marine Drones Used in Drug War

The Marine Corps has joined the battle to plug the flow of drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying reconnaissance drones for the first time to monitor the movements of smugglers.

The small, remotely piloted aircraft sent television-like pictures to ground operators, surveying an 80-mile-long stretch of border west of Laredo, Texas. During the three-week that ended Feb. 26, the information provided by the Marines enabled federal agents to snare smugglers toting almost $1 million worth of marijuana and to double the number of undocumented workers captured for illegally crossing the border.

The mission has been called a success and authorities are now weighing whether to expand the program to other border states, including California, said Duke Austin, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington.

The stint represents one of the first major efforts in the drug war by the newly formed Joint Task Force 6. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney last November approved the formation of the unit to coordinate the anti-smuggling activities of federal, state and local agencies,

Ted Swofford, a Border Patrol spokesman in San Diego, said local agents would “welcome the opportunity to test new technology” such as the drones.

The military has stepped gingerly into the relatively new role of assisting in the drug war, balancing concerns voiced by Mexican officials over the “militarization” of the border and fears expressed by government officials that the military could be overreaching its authority.

The Civil War-era Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of military forces in domestic law enforcement. Marines and other members of the armed forces cannot arrest smugglers, but they can assist law enforcement agencies in making those arrests.

“We are not in the law enforcement business; nor do we want to be,” said Army Maj. John Mims, spokesman of Joint Task Force 6, which has a 70-member staff in its office at Biggs Army Air Field in El Paso. “We are supporting federal, state and local drug-enforcement agencies; we are not the lead agency.”

Some critics say the Pentagon is expanding its role in deterring not only drug smugglers but also in stopping illegal entry along the 2,000-mile border. U.S. officials describe that role as secondary to counter-narcotics efforts, but the issue of the armed forces assisting in arrests of undocumented workers has generated much opposition.

“I’m not opposed to enforcing the borders but I’m interested in making sure the people who are doing that are properly trained. The border patrol and INS agents go through extensive training--I’m skeptical that Marines have any of that training,” said Charles Wheeler, director of the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles. “I’m skeptical of another police force out on the border without proper training that might be making decisions in an area where tensions are rising.”

The military presence on the border has increased dramatically during recent years. In the current fiscal year, the Department of Defense received about $450 million for drug-interdiction efforts, an increase of one-third more than the previous year.

The Marines have been involved with drug interdiction operations since April, 1983, when they began using manned aircraft to observe smugglers’ activities along the Florida coast, said Lt. Col. Ron Stokes, a Marine Corps spokesman in Washington. But they were not deployed on the ground until last year. In December, a Marine reconnaissance team working with the Border Patrol in Arizona exchanged gunfire with marijuana smugglers riding horses. No injuries were reported.

In past years, the Army and Air Force have flown missions in search of suspicious aircraft and the Navy has assisted the Coast Guard in the seizure of drug-carrying vessels. And last year, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint U.S.-Canada force, entered the fray. The command patrols and protects the airspace over the two countries as well as the area over the U.S.-Mexico border. From April to June, NORAD assisted in the apprehension 14 drug-ladden aircraft.

The Marines were sent to Texas at the request of senior Border Patrol agents. The Marine Corps has three units that use the sophisticated surveillance drones, officially called Remote Piloted Vehicles. One unit is based in North Carolina and the other two are stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County.

Chief Border Patrol Agent Joe Garza of the Laredo office says his force is struggling to keep pace with smugglers of drugs and people. Charged with patrolling 110,000 square miles that includes 171 miles of Rio Grande River, Garza requested help from Operation Alliance, an agency appointed by then Vice President Bush in 1986 to help orchestrate efforts by various law enforcement agencies in preventing contraband from crossing the border. Operation Alliance leaders, in turn, contacted Joint Task Force 6.

Garza selected an area that border agents had not heavily patrolled but where ranchers were complaining that their wire fences were being cut.

“We had no or little information on this area,” Garza said. “But we had some complaints from ranchers that we had some fence cutters. I thought it might be narcotics smugglers. These are things we needed to find out.”

Garza requested military assistance; officials at Joint Task Force 6 selected the Marines from Twentynine Palms. For the Marines, the mission was viewed as a real-life training exercise and a chance to use equipment highly touted by officials.

“The remotely piloted vehicle is one that has a future in the Marine Corp and has proven its worth,” said Stokes, the Marine Corps spokesman. “It does have great utility in a variety of missions. And it could have great utility in the counter-narcotics efforts.”

The remote-controlled aircraft resembles a large toy plane. Its wingspan is almost 17 feet and fully loaded it weighs 429 pounds. The 3-foot-tall aircraft can fly about 100 knots but usually flies half that speed when it’s monitoring the ground.

The Israelis have used the drones to monitor enemy activity and to direct artillery fire. The Marine aircraft, manufactured by an Israeli company, have been used solely in training exercises and not in combat by the United States.

In referring to the remote-control aircraft, the Marines avoid using the word drone because they believe it conjures up an inaccurate picture of expendable planes like those called drones that are used for target practice, said Capt. Kevin Murphy, spokesman for the base at Twentynine Palms.

“This thing is designed to gather intelligence and be used again and again and again,” Murphy said. “It’s very sophisticated--unlike a drone. Though it’s in use now, we probably haven’t fully tapped its potential.”

Over land, the aircraft can fly 60 miles from its ground-based operator. But the plane always needs to maintain a line of sight. In mountainous regions, the tiny craft has to fly at a higher altitude to maintain contact. Usually, it flies no more than 10,000 feet but it can climb up to 15,000 feet. The aircraft, which costs about $500,000 each, can fly about five hours before running out of fuel. The aircraft’s TV camera aboard beams back live pictures to its operators, who then relay the information to INS agents.

“It’s an eye in the sky,” said Mims, the Joint Task Force 6 spokesman.

In Texas, the surveillance enabled the agents under the command of Garza to seize 1,009 pounds of marijuana in four separate incidents. They arrested two people carrying the illegal drug and two escaped, Garza said. And Garza learned that the fence-cutters were not narcotics smugglers but illegal aliens, cutting the wire to allow vans to cross into the U.S. During the Marines’ stint, border agents caught 372 illegal aliens--or double the usual number, Garza said.