MIAMI, June 23 (UPI) -- The United States is planning to increase its aerial drone surveillance in the drug-smuggling sea lanes of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, officials said.
The Department of Homeland Security has been testing the Predator drone over the Bahamas for more than a year and is ready to go operational over areas used by smuggling boats.
The Los Angeles Times said the DHS currently has nine Predators, most of which are assigned to the Mexican and Canadian border areas. Adding the Gulf and Caribbean to the patrol area will virtually double the square miles currently covered.
"There is a lot more going on in the deep Caribbean, and we would like to know more," a law enforcement official told the Times.
But the new operation is not considered a slam-dunk by counter-narcotics experts. Officials told the Times the Predator has not proven particularly successful at detecting small boats on the open sea.
"Will they be effective? We have no systematic evidence on how effective they are," said Bruce Bagley, who studies U.S. counter-narcotics efforts at the University of Miami.
