According to ONDCP, disrupting the illicit flow of drugs will reduce their availability, increase their cost, and eventually, reduce the rate of illicit drug usage. One part of the ONDCP strategy to disrupt the illicit drug market focuses interdiction efforts on seizing cocaine and other illicit drugs in the transit zone that are bound for the United States (arrival zone) from South America (source zone). Virtually all of the cocaine shipped to the United States travels through the transit zone from South America—entering Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean en route to the United States. The transit zone is a 6 million square mile area that encompasses Central America, Mexico, the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. The transit zone is divided into four maritime trafficking routes: Eastern Pacific, Western Caribbean, Central Caribbean, and Eastern Caribbean. Drug traffickers use go-fast boats, fishing vessels, submersible vessels, noncommercial aircraft, and other types of conveyances to smuggle cocaine from the source zone to Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean en route to the United States. ONDCP’s strategy for drug interdiction in the transit zone is focused on cocaine because ONDCP has identified cocaine as a leading drug threat to the United States. According to Coast Guard officials, the largest estimated share of cocaine has been smuggled through the Eastern Pacific and Western Caribbean routes of the transit zone for nearly two decades. For example, the principal source of information about cocaine flow in the transit zone is the CCDB. According to the CCDB, in fiscal year 2013, approximately 84 percent of the estimated cocaine flow, as measured in metric tons, was by noncommercial maritime means through these two routes. Figure 1 shows a map indicating the source, transit, and arrival zones—with the fiscal year 2013 estimated noncommercial maritime cocaine flow through the four smuggling routes and the locations of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands within the transit zone. As the southernmost points of entry into the United States and the only U.S. territories within the transit zone, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are key entry points for illicit drugs being smuggled into the United States. Like the continental United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are considered part of the arrival zone, yet they are located geographically within the Eastern Caribbean route of the transit zone. According to a 2011 Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center report, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are attractive targets for illicit drug smuggling because of their proximity to the source zone and Puerto Rico’s location within the United States’ Customs zone. According to Coast Guard officials, the illicit drug flow through the Central and Eastern Caribbean routes generally consists of maritime smuggling from South America to the Dominican Republic and eventual transshipment to Puerto Rico (secondary flow) and, to a lesser extent, maritime smuggling directly from South America to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (primary flow). CCDB drug flow estimates show that in fiscal year 2013, about 3 percent of the cocaine flow in the transit zone was smuggled toward Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Department of Justice has reported that most of this flow is destined for the continental United States—with the rest remaining on the islands for local consumption. However, estimates indicate that illicit cocaine smuggling toward Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands has increased each year since fiscal year 2009. For example, according to CCDB estimates, cocaine flow toward Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands has more than doubled in recent years, from 6.4 metric tons in fiscal year 2009 to 17.3 metric tons in fiscal year 2013. Federal and local government officials in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have raised concerns about the illicit drug flow and have identified it as a key contributor to the high levels of murder and other violent crime on the islands. In particular, homicide rates in the two territories have risen in recent years, and federal and local officials have linked the rise of the homicide rates, in part, to illicit cocaine trafficking on the Island. According to a 2014 study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the 2010 homicide rate in Puerto Rico was about 27 per 100,000 persons and in the U.S. Virgin Islands it was about 53 per 100,000 persons—more than 5 times (Puerto Rico) and 11 times (U.S. Virgin Islands) the U.S. national rate. According to a 2011 report issued by the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area office that oversees the territories, most of this violence is associated with turf wars for control over the local drug market. JIATF-S relies on DHS (Coast Guard and CBP) and the Department of Defense (Navy) to provide vessels and aircraft for conducting drug interdiction operations in the transit zone. JIATF-S also receives operational resources from allied countries, with Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom providing maritime detection and monitoring assistance. According to JIATF-S and Coast Guard officials, the JIATF-S strategy is to use its available vessel and aircraft resources to patrol the transit zone far from U.S. shores and close to the source zone countries in South America in order to increase chances the interdictions are of larger load sizes and higher purity than would otherwise be the case and to cause greater disruption to illicit drug- smuggling organizations. JIATF-S officials reported deploying the majority of available vessels and aircraft to patrol the Eastern Pacific and Western Caribbean routes of the transit zone because the routes have accounted for the largest drug flow—and therefore deploying resources to these routes will have the greatest impact on efforts to disrupt cocaine flow. The Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for maritime drug interdiction in the transit zone, and its operations with JIATF-S are a key element of the Coast Guard’s counter-drug efforts. Overall, the Coast Guard is a major contributor of JIATF-S vessel and aircraft resources. The resources the Coast Guard provides to JIATF-S generally include major cutters, maritime patrol aircraft (planes), and helicopters capable of deploying airborne use of force (AUF). In addition, the Coast Guard provides JIATF-S with deployable specialized forces—specifically Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDET)—embarked on U.S. naval and allied vessels. We discuss AUF and LEDETs in more detail later in this report. The Coast Guard’s process for allocating drug interdiction resources is focused on meeting commitments for strategic priorities, such as JIATF-S transit zone operations, first, before dividing up its remaining resources between its Atlantic and Pacific Area Commands. According to Coast Guard guidance and discussions with DHS officials, the Coast Guard determines the amount of resource levels—targets for the amount of time selected vessels, aircraft, and LEDETs are provided to JIATF-S—through an annual operational planning process that considers factors, including resource requirements for strategic priorities, evolving maritime risks, and the availability of the Coast Guard’s fleet of vessels and aircraft. JIATF-S requests for resource requirements specify the capabilities (types of vessels or aircraft) and corresponding capacities (number of days for vessels or resource hours for aircraft) for the Coast Guard, CBP, and the Department of Defense. The Coast Guard reviews JIATF-S resource requirement requests, sets resource deployment targets for JIATF-S, and communicates these targets to DHS for inclusion in a DHS-wide Statement of Intent of planned deployments to JIATF-S. The Coast Guard then allocates its remaining available resources to the Atlantic and Pacific Area Commands, which further allocate the resources for implementing the Coast Guard’s 11 missions, including drug interdiction. See appendix I for more details on the Coast Guard’s drug interdiction mission resource allocation process. Unlike with overall transit zone operations, JIATF-S does not oversee detection and monitoring efforts for drug smuggling in the U.S. territories.and coordinating operations to interdict the maritime flow of illicit drugs in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands because they are U.S. territories and part of the arrival zone. In addition to the Coast Guard, CBP’s Puerto Rico-based Caribbean Air and Marine Branch conducts marine interdiction and patrol operations using a mix of planes, helicopters, and Rather, DHS has the lead federal responsibility for planning small boats for coastal drug interdiction operations, generally within U.S. territorial waters. The Puerto Rico Police Department also deploys small boats for drug interdiction operations. Overall, from fiscal years 2009 through 2013, the amount of resources the Coast Guard provided to JIATF-S—including vessels, aircraft, and LEDETs—varied. During this period, the Coast Guard generally did not meet annual targets for its primary drug interdiction mission performance measure. Coast Guard officials cited the declining readiness of the Coast Guard’s aging major cutter fleet; delays in the delivery of new, more capable replacement cutters; and budget constraints, including sequestration, as key factors affecting the Coast Guard’s ability to meet its resource deployment and drug interdiction mission performance targets. Figure 2 shows the key resources the Coast Guard uses to support drug interdiction operations. The Coast Guard’s deployment of vessels to JIATF-S to carry out drug interdiction operations in the transit zone varied during fiscal years 2009 through 2012, and then sharply declined in 2013.