Virtually all the cocaine destined for the United States originates in the Andean countries of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia and travels through the transit zone. The United States provides significant counternarcotics assistance toward reducing coca cultivation, disrupting cocaine production, and preventing cocaine from reaching the United States. Drug traffickers move cocaine and other drugs to the United States through two main vectors or “corridors.” In recent years, approximately 90 percent of cocaine moving toward the United States has gone through the Central American/Mexican corridor and then over the border to the United States. The remainder, roughly 10 percent, transits the Caribbean and enters the United States through Florida, Puerto Rico, and other eastern locations. (See fig. 1.) More than 25 countries lie within the transit zone. The President has designated eight of these as “major drug transit countries” based on the estimated volume of illicit drugs that pass through their territory each year. These countries are the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, and Venezuela. Drug trafficking organizations and associated criminal networks are extremely adaptive. They shift routes and operating methods quickly in response to pressure from law enforcement organizations or rival traffickers. They ship drugs through the transit zone primarily by sea, though their methods have become more evasive in recent years. They typically use go-fast boats and fishing vessels to smuggle cocaine from Colombia to Central America and Mexico en route to the United States. Go-fast boats are capable of traveling at speeds over 40 knots, are difficult to detect in open water, and are often used at night. When drug traffickers travel in daylight, they often use boats painted blue, or that can be quickly covered with a blue tarpaulin, thereby becoming virtually impossible to see. Even when detected, go-fast boats can often outrun conventional ships deployed in the transit zone. Traffickers also use “mother ships” in concert with fishing vessels to transport illicit drugs into open waters and then distribute the load among smaller boats at sea. In addition, traffickers use evasive maritime routes and change them frequently. Some boats travel as far southwest as the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean before heading north toward Mexico, while others travel through Central America’s littoral waters, close to shore, where they can hide among legitimate maritime traffic. In addition, the Joint Interagency Task Force- South (JIATF-South), under Defense’s U.S. Southern Command, has reported an increase in suspicious flights—particularly departing from Venezuela. In addition, traffickers fly loads of cocaine to remote, ungoverned spaces—such as northern Guatemala, near the Mexican border—and abandon the planes. Planes, however, generally carry much smaller loads than most maritime vessels used for drug trafficking. Traffickers also are using increasingly sophisticated concealment methods. For example, they have built fiberglass semisubmersible craft that can avoid both visual- and sonar-detection, hidden cocaine within the hulls of boats, and transported liquefied cocaine in fuel tanks. According to Defense’s Office of Counternarcotics, Counterproliferation, and Global Threats, these shifts in drug trafficking patterns and methods have likely taken place largely in response to U.S. and international counternarcotics efforts in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean, although measuring causes and effects is imprecise. In addition, according to Defense, drug trafficking organizations and associated criminal networks commonly enjoy greater financial and material resources (including weapons as well as communication, navigation, and other technologies) than do governments in the transit zone. The U.S. National Drug Control Strategy’s goal is to reduce illegal drug usage in the United States. One priority is to disrupt the illegal drug trade abroad—including in the transit zone—by attacking the power structures and finances of international criminal organizations. This involves seizing large quantities of cocaine from transporters, disrupting major drug trafficking organizations, arresting their leaders, and seizing their assets. The strategy also calls for the United States to support democratic institutions and the rule of law in allied nations, strengthen these nations’ prosecutorial efforts, and prosecute foreign traffickers. According to State’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, the goal of U.S. counternarcotics assistance to other countries is to help their governments become full and self-sustaining partners in the fight against drugs. ONDCP produces the National Drug Control Strategy, establishes policies, priorities, and objectives for the nation’s drug control program, and evaluates, coordinates, and oversees the counternarcotics efforts of executive branch agencies, including assistance to countries in the transit zone. State/INL manages and funds law enforcement assistance, including programs implemented by a variety of other U.S. agencies, such as DHS’s Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. State also administers security assistance programs generally implemented by Defense, including Foreign Military Financing and International Military Education and Training programs, which are intended to strengthen the overall capacity of foreign forces to address security threats, including violence and instability associated with drug trafficking. Defense, primarily through its Office of Counternarcotics, Counterproliferation, and Global Threats, provides guidance and oversight, as well as funds for counternarcotics and related security activities in the transit zone. DEA works to disrupt drug trafficking operations and dismantle criminal organizations, bringing leaders to prosecution either in the United States or in other countries; it maintains offices in countries throughout the transit zone. USAID also supports the U.S. counternarcotics effort indirectly through its rule of law and alternative development programs. Table 1 shows assistance provided by State, DEA, Defense, and USAID to support counternarcotics-related programs and activities in transit zone countries for fiscal years 2003 through 2007. As part of the “Merida Initiative,” the President has asked the Congress to provide $1.1 billion in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 to train and equip Mexican and Central American security forces to combat criminal organizations. Of this amount, $950 million would be dedicated to Mexico, and $150 million would be dedicated to Central American countries. This proposal is under consideration by the Congress. The Administration’s proposal is for all programs to be administered by the State Department, although other U.S. agencies may be involved in implementation. Since 2003, through U.S.-supported international counternarcotics programs, the United States and the eight major drug transit countries we reviewed, except Venezuela, have enhanced their cooperation in combating drug trafficking, primarily through improvements in investigations and intelligence gathering, maritime and land-based operations, and prosecutions of drug traffickers. Measuring the results of a wide variety of assistance programs across many countries over time is difficult as U.S. agencies have compiled limited and inconsistent performance data. Nevertheless, the improvements attained through these programs have contributed to the U.S. strategy of disrupting the illicit drug market through drug seizures, arrests, prosecutions, and drug crop eradication, according to information provided by State and DEA. Actionable intelligence is a critical component of interdiction, and the United States often requires access to raw information and sources from partner nations to develop this intelligence. State/INL, DEA, and Defense have helped all eight partner nations we reviewed develop organizations and methods for gathering, analyzing, and sharing intelligence and information that have led to arrests and seizures of drugs and assets. These efforts have included establishing vetted and specialized investigative units; strengthening investigative authority of local law enforcement; and installing data networks within and among countries to compile, analyze, and share information. DEA and State/INL have established vetted investigative units, staffed by local law enforcement officers, in all of the major drug transit countries we reviewed. These units have worked closely with U.S. officials to develop successful investigations. The United States provides these units with operational support, from money to pay agents and confidential sources to vehicles and surveillance equipment. For example, in the Dominican Republic, a vetted unit within the counternarcotics police used a U.S.-supported wire intercept program to conduct more than 730 wiretap operations in fiscal year 2007. The program provided daily support to numerous major investigations in the United States and abroad, including the investigation of eight priority target organizations. In Ecuador, DEA estimates that one vetted investigative unit has been responsible for 70 percent of all drug seizures in that country. In Jamaica, according to State, intelligence-driven operations coordinated with DEA and the vetted unit targeted major drug traffickers, and collaboration between Jamaican and international law enforcement agencies have resulted in significant seizures of cocaine and arrests of midlevel and major traffickers— including kingpins—and the dismantling of their organizations, in Jamaica, the United States, the Bahamas, and Colombia. Since late 2004, almost all significant bilateral investigations with Jamaica have included a wire intercept component using DEA-funded facilities. In the Bahamas, according to State, intelligence gathering and surveillance equipment provided by State/INL enabled local law enforcement to dismantle two Bahamas-based drug trafficking organizations in 2006. DEA has also helped governments draft legislation to broaden the scope of investigative tools available to law enforcement organizations. For example, Guatemala’s Organized Crime Bill, put into effect in 2007, authorizes wire intercepts and undercover operations, and allows drugs to be delivered under controlled circumstances in order to identify the traffickers involved—referred to as controlled delivery. DEA also encouraged legislation in Jamaica to authorize wire intercepts and fingerprinting of suspects. Similarly, legislation in Venezuela enhanced police investigative powers in 2005 by allowing controlled deliveries. In addition, with U.S. technical and financial assistance, several countries are operating information centers to collect, analyze, and disseminate statistical and case-related data to aid local and foreign law enforcement officials in criminal investigations.