SAN DIEGO, California — Federal agents who patrol U.S. waters from north of Tijuana up to Los Angeles say that drug smuggling has dropped off steeply as the U.S. has become more permissive toward marijuana at the same time that human trafficking has become more rewarding.
The amount of drugs agents have seized in the 2019 fiscal year has dropped significantly from previous years and is expected to finish at just one-tenth of the amounts found in each of the last five years.
Since the start of the fiscal year last October, agents who work in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations arm have collected slightly more than 8,000 pounds worth of drugs, three-quarters of which was marijuana. Mariners and aircraft operators seized the narcotics primarily from boating vessels that crossed from just off the coast of Mexico north into U.S. territory and did not present themselves for legal entry.
But that figure, from the first nine months of the fiscal year, is just 5% of the 163,00 pounds of illicit substances found in 2018, according to data provided by a CBP official. The amount of drugs seized by agents working along the sea border has fluctuated since 2014, but remained between 105,000 and 225,000 pounds a year, with marijuana making up 90%.
“Right now, it’s more profitable for the smugglers to bring over humans as opposed to narcotics,” said Kris Goland, a supervisory marine interdiction agent, speaking during a boat excursion this week. He said that he wasn’t sure why the relative attractiveness of drug-running had decline, but he suggested that the legalization of marijuana in California was a factor.
Goland has worked out of the San Diego branch since 2007 and serves as the liaison between air and marine agents and the Border Patrol, port officers, the Coast Guard, and other law enforcement partners. He speculated that, in addition to the change in California marijuana laws, the drug seizures are trending down because smugglers can make more money moving people.
Ralph DeSio, the CBP spokesman for the San Diego region, agreed smugglers appeared to be focusing efforts on moving people rather than drugs.
“Humans that are being smuggled across are paying $10,000-$15,000 per person, and when we talk about other than Mexicans — OTMs, such as Chinese, they may go for tens of thousands of dollars,” Goland explained.
Goland added that smugglers can make nearly $200,000 running one boat of people from Tijuana up seven miles to San Diego. The start-up costs for such an operation are extremely low, which serve as further enticement to join the transnational criminal network.
“They could easily buy a boat that costs them only a couple grand and one successful smuggling venture with 20 people at say $10,000 a head — look how much profit they made,” he said.
Under federal law, migrants caught crossing illegally face misdemeanor charges the first time and felony charges every time thereafter. Goland said they can also become victims because they are putting themselves in the hands of smugglers who often place people in unsafe situations in order to boost profit. He said it is normal for fishing vessels packed with migrants not to have life jackets on board.
In addition, some people who have paid to get to the U.S., but were unable to pay the high cost upfront, are sometimes forced into “servitude,” he said, though did not break down what type of work people are forced into.
If air and marine agents are able to interdict a boat with migrants onboard, they will arrest the smuggler and take the others back to land on their own vessel. Those in custody will then be taken to the Border Patrol’s San Clemente or Imperial Beach stations.
However, Goland said that some smugglers are able to avoid detection because the Air and Marine Operations’ cameras and sensors, placed in aircrafts overhead and on the coastal facilities to see water traffic, only catch so much. Air and Marine Operations typically deploys its eyes in the sky at night, because intelligence and past smuggling activity suggests that is when illegal movement is most likely to occur in the waters near San Diego.
“They will move traffic out to 200 miles further west to circumvent all our border security, and then hit north to come in somewhere that’s less fortified,” said DeSio. “It is a massive open border when you look at the coast.”
Goland said detecting smugglers that have gone out that far into the ocean is like finding a “needle in a haystack.”
