They may not look threatening, but the Navy and Coast Guard have started using souped-up blimps with Porsche engines to track down illegal migrants and drug smugglers in the Florida Straits.
The blimps arrive at a time when Cuban migration is at its highest since the ’60s. The Coast Guard is struggling to keep up with a new breed of organized smugglers using smaller high-speed boats to bring migrants to Florida. NPR reports on the recent influx of migrants:
“Smuggling has long been a Florida cottage industry. But instead of patrolling for rum runners or drug traffickers, the Coast Guard now spends most of its time trying to stop people smugglers.
Under long-standing U.S. law, Cubans who arrive in the United States automatically receive refugee status. But since 1995, under the “wet-foot/dry-foot” policy, Cubans must actually make it to land — not be stopped while still at sea. That has helped create the people-smuggling industry.
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Coast Guard Admiral David Kunkel says the boats are often stolen and the people operating them are themselves migrants who have recently arrived from Cuba. But, Kunkel says, it’s profit, not politics that’s the motivation. Smugglers charge Cubans up to $10,000 a head for the 90-mile trip to Florida. And Kunkel says safety is not a concern.”
The slow-moving airships have already helped catch a ship smuggling 26 people over the waters between Cuba and Key West.
The blimps’ advantage: They’re equipped with an array of tracking instruments, float longer than a plane can stay in the air and only burn 10 gallons of fuel per hour. However, they don’t come cheap — the government spent $1.6 million on a six-week trial finished earlier this month.
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September 19, 2008 at 5:29 pm
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