Agencies urge Congress to act on threat posed by stateless sublike watercraft

On Friday, senior officials from agencies at Homeland Security, Justice and the Defense departments, and the White House urged lawmakers to act on legislation that would criminalize the operation of stateless self-propelled semisubmersible vessels before Congress adjourns on Sept. 26.

Twice in the previous six days, the Coast Guard boarded such submarinelike craft loaded with cocaine bound for the U.S. market. Both vessels, which are about 60 feet long and can be underway for several thousand miles, were built in Colombia and used sophisticated electronics, Coast Guard officials said.

The concern is such vessels, known as SPSS craft, could be used to ferry weapons of mass destruction to the United States. They are difficult to detect on radar and relatively easy to build and operate. Officials estimate more than 32 percent of all cocaine smuggled into the country now is transported this way.

At a briefing at Coast Guard headquarters with representatives from the Navy, Defense, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, officials urged the Senate to take up S. 3351, which passed the House in late July as the Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act, or H.R. 6295.

The law would criminalize the operation of submersible or semisubmersible watercraft without identifiable nationality in international waters -- regardless of cargo. It also includes protections for researchers and explorers conducting legitimate business.

Smugglers historically have used fishing vessels and go-fast boats to transport cocaine. "This is the new method," said John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The growing use of these vessels has created a sense of urgency among federal agencies. In the first three quarters of 2008, the Coast Guard recorded 62 "events" regarding SPSS vessels. In the previous six and a half years, there were fewer than 30 such encounters.

Boarding such craft is particularly hazardous. One of the most recent incidents was on Sept. 13, 350 miles west of Guatemala. A Navy aircraft detected a 59-foot steel and fiberglass SPSS and reported the location to the USS McInerney operating nearby. That night, Coast Guard law enforcement detachment 404 left the McInerney aboard small boats and boarded the SPSS. When the smugglers realized they had been boarded they reversed the engines at a high speed in an attempt to throw off the Coast Guard personnel. They then attempted to scuttle the craft but ultimately complied with orders to close the valves that were flooding the SPSS.

The case was unusual because Coast Guard personnel were able to apprehend the four smugglers and retrieve seven tons of cocaine, making criminal prosecution of the smugglers possible. Typically, smugglers are able to sink the craft, along with incriminating evidence, before it can be seized, making prosecution impossible.

"Boarding parties perform critically important work," said Richard Douglas, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for counternarcotics, counterproliferation and global threats. The legislation criminalizing the operation of SPSS craft will go a long way toward prosecuting would-be smugglers, he said.