CAMP RIPPER, Iraq, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- As insurgent and terrorist violence in western Anbar province continues to fall, a small band of U.S. Marines at Al Asad Air Base are increasingly drawing their beads on bands of oil smugglers who nip across the border to Syria to sell purloined oil or who hawk refined fuel from Syria on the Iraqi black market.

They're called Aero-Scouts. And though their operations in the area known as AO-Denver may not be counter-insurgency warfare in the narrowest sense, they're an important element in the broader strategy to help bring security and stability.

First, smuggling of oil and refined fuel undercuts Iraq's central government. Second, it may also be helping fund insurgent and terrorist operations. A classified U.S. government report disclosed by The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) last year estimated insurgents raked in a minimum of $25 million annually as a result of the activity nationwide.

In western Anbar province, Maj. Bob Brodie from South Carolina is the man smugglers have to reckon with. Nearly every day he and a group of 40 Marines, together with a handful of Iraqi army personnel, scour the desert by helicopter and swoop down on encampments and suspect vehicles. It's a multitasked effort: part policing, part counter-insurgency, part reconnaissance.

"I've been doing it for about 10 months now, and we've interdicted oil pirates, found insurgent camps, weapons caches and an IED (improvised explosive devices) factory," he said. "These days, we're finding oil pirates more and more."