(2 of 2)
On both sides, it is a war of ingenious technology. The drug runners pack their craft with ten-channel digital scanners to monitor lawmen. Surplus nightscopes from the Viet Nam War enable them to spot a cutter in the darkest channel at three miles. Federal infiltrators occasionally manage to install transponders on the enemy aircraft to chart their whereabouts. But the drug runners have "fuzz busters," electronic devices that warn when they are on the radarscope.
The Feds rely heavily on informants and undercover men. Last year DEA agents masquerading as buyers maneuvered a small fishing boat up to an aging freighter off the Bahamas and made a pot purchase. Then a cutter emerged from hiding, pouring a fusillade of 3-in. cannon fire over the ship's bow as the crew attempted to jettison its 54-ton marijuana cargo. But good intelligence is thin and expensive. Informants get up to $2,500 and a share of the confiscated gear, but the enemy has its own network of counter-intelligence agents. They have attempted to bribe Coast Guardsmen for patrol schedules. Now even routine sailings from Miami are kept secret.
The Coast Guard has boosted patrols by one-third, stages surprise harbor blockades and keeps a near continuous surveillance of the Windward Passage, the major shipping route north. A "hot list" of known pot boats has helped officials make 70 seizures in the past three years. But some of the biggest busts have come by accident: a cabin cruiser, floundering under its own weight of pot off Fort Lauderdale, was forced to radio authorities for help. Another ran into a bridge.
Prosecution is hampered by hazy, antiquated law. The Feds' chief tool is a Prohibition-era statute, the Hovering Vessels Act. But nabbing a ship in the act of unloading is a rarity. The Coast Guard has authority to board an unmarked vessel on the high seas, but possession of drugs is not a crime beyond the twelve-mile limit.
Finally, the odds of beating a drug charge are good. Miami has 30 lawyers who specialize in drug cases. Federal prosecutors are so swamped that they rarely bother with pot cases of less than one ton. Many prosecutions are assigned to state courts, where a conviction is often followed with light punishment for first offenders. Typical sentence: six months.