The New England Connection

Drug smuggling moves north along the Atlantic Coast

It was ludicrously out of place, a white shrimp boat with canvas canopy chugging through the Gulf of Maine, 120 miles northeast of Boston. It flew no flag, bore no name and carried no fishing gear. The reason the craft had sailed so far north became immediately apparent once suspicious Coast Guard officers went aboard and sniffed the air: below deck were 859 burlap bales containing 25 tons of pot (estimated market value: $15 million).

The capture of the shrimp boat and its Spanish-speaking crew this month was the largest single drug seizure ever made in New England, but it was only the latest sign that drug smuggling along the region's seacoast has swelled to a high and threatening tide. In the past twelve months, the feds have captured 14 vessels destined for New England carrying a total of 82 tons of marijuana. Most of the pot comes from Colombia, Jamaica and Mexico, and it is usually transported on small boats from southern waters (although two years ago a light plane flying grass from South America was seized after landing in Bedford, Mass.).

Authorities say that smuggling in the New England region has been increasing in recent years as drug-runners started moving north to avoid the heat generated by U.S. agents along the nation's southern border. New England's 250 colleges and its average price for pot of $40 per oz. offered an attractive market to smugglers. Says Edward Cass, regional director of the Drug Enforcement Administration: "Someone would buy a boat, pick up a crew at some marina, go down to Jamaica or Colombia and drop a ton of the grass off on the Florida coast, a ton off at the Carolinas, then a ton in Rhode Island and in Maine." Most of the smugglers were young adventurers (including some from as far away as Australia) with no serious criminal backgrounds, and many headed for the state of Maine whose 3,000 miles of seacoast and 1,400 islands make it a smuggler's paradise.

The feds now believe that organized drug wholesalers and international syndicates are operating in New England. In August a series of drug raids in Rhode Island uncovered a drug ring using 20 trucks, six airplanes and four ocean-going vessels.

In Maine, U.S. District Attorney George Mitchell says the smuggling has become "a major problem." This summer alone, 20 arrests were made for drug smuggling, and Mitchell has asked for more DEA agents (at present there are only two assigned to the state). The Coast Guard is also woefully outmanned: it has only nine cutters to patrol the entire New England coastline. According to Edward Drinan, a DEA agent stationed in Portland, drug smuggling in Maine is "an everyday occurrence." His bleak assessment: "We are getting our pants beat off. There's no doubt about the fact we just can't cope with it."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.