JACKSONVILLE: A Jacksonville-based Customs and Border Protection crew has seized more than 63 tons of cocaine in the past year, estimated to be worth about $9.5 billion.
Those numbers equate to the most successful drug interdiction operations since the 1990s for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations National Security Operations Center in Jacksonville.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents monitor the air and seas to keep drugs or people from entering the country illegally.
“This office is in Jacksonville. It’s filled with your neighbors,” Air Interdiction Agent Bill Walsh said. “We take this job very seriously.”
CBP logged nearly 6,000 hours in the air this past year, seizing about $9.5 billion in cocaine.
“We’d like the smuggling of narcotics to be no longer there, but we see it every day, every week, every month that it continues to be a problem,” Walsh said.
The six P-3s used during the missions to stop drugs from crossing U.S. borders are a critical component of homeland security. The planes can last in the air for more than 10 hours before they have to land and refuel.
The crews also use C-12 planes and Predator B unmanned drones to assist in their missions. They spend much of their time flying over the waters of Central and South America to stop smuggling well before the criminals make it to the U.S.
“We’re using different sensors that are equipped on the aircraft to detect and monitor,” said Derek Brown, senior detection enforcement officer. “Then using communications systems to contact the Coast Guard, Navy or local assets to interdict and apprehend the suspects.”
Each mission can last about a week, so the crew members spend several long hours in the air away from their home and families.
But they said the long hours are worth it to protect the country.
“As the drugs started taking over, I saw a lot of bad things happen, and I wanted to fight back. The only way to do it legally was to join U.S. Customs and it’s been the best move I’ve ever made,” Detection Enforcement Officer Carlos Rivera said. “I’m very proud of what we do as a team.”
