Wall Street Journal: They see themselves as the cowboys of the drug trade, highly experienced crews that ferry narcotics on small boats across the open seas, running on a mix of bravado, skill and dreams of a massive payday.Even with the new danger of getting blown out of the water by the U.S. military after being designated as terrorists by the Trump administration, the incentives remain huge. One pilot of a drug boat said a clean run of two or three tons of cocaine can mean $100,000 for a day’s work. Another drug-boat crew member who operates in the Pacific described an operation in August in which smugglers met at a fixed point in the ocean to pass $12 million worth of cocaine from the boat to a “narco sub.” Now the 29-year-old Colombian is being asked to make another crossing. He is spooked by the airstrikes but hasn’t ruled it out.His calculation underlines the hard reality that counterdrug officials face: Dozens of speed boats, submersible vessels, fishing boats and other craft move cocaine on the high seas every month—many times more than what the U.S. has attacked since first launching an airstrike in early September, former Colombian naval officials say.
In Album: Roger's Timeline Photos
Dimension:
819 x 1024
File Size:
73.96 Kb
Be the first person to like this.
