By Holly Gilbert Stowell
The U.S. Coast Guard “did not meet its performance targets” for providing drug interdiction resources along a vital transit area known for narcotics trafficking, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released yesterday. The transit zone in the report is considered the area from “South America through the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.” While the Coast Guard provided resources such as aircraft, vessels, and law enforcement detachments, the number of hours and days those entities were actually providing service in the transit zone vary widely between fiscal years 2009-2013. Citing one example, the report states that only in 2013 did the Coast Guard meet its target for one of its “primary drug interdiction performance measures,” which was the removal rate of cocaine from “noncommercial vessels” in the transit zone. According to the report, “Coast Guard officials cited the declining readiness of its aging vessels, delays in the delivery of replacement vessels, and sequestration as factors affecting Coast Guard resource deployments and the ability to meet its drug interdiction mission performance targets.”
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