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>National Narcotics Border Interdiction System
https://bush41library.tamu.edu/files/foia/2013-1210-S%20[Murphy-%20NNBIS%20Files].pdf
The South Florida Task Force
The South Florida Task Force, created by President Reagan on 28 January 1982 and headed by Vice-President bush, is an excellent example of co-operation and the positive results possible through such co-ordination. It has served as a model for two major national initiatives in the United States.
The Task Force is a multi-agency effort against the serious crime problems in the Miami metropolitan area. The problem had grown acute. As Vice-President bush said, "Miami, once a vacation paradise for millions of Americans, became the playground for cocaine cowboys and thousands of other criminals involved in drug trafficking". 20 The Task Force has coordinated substantial increases in efforts to interdict illicit drug traffic by air, sea and on land. It has involved federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and military support activities. The Task Force also coordinates law enforcement programmes targeted on major criminal organizations operating in South Florida, attacking their financial base and seizing illegal profits.
The Task Force also aids the entire criminal justice system in that part of the country by contributing additional judges, prosecutors, investigators, court rooms, support personnel and prison capacity. DEA, Customs, the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration, FBI, the International Revenue Service, the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and military personnel are working together in this Task Force.
As Head of the South Florida Task Force, Vice-President Bush leads this co-ordinated response. He has said :
"In a very brief period of time we sent to South Florida additional, federal judges, more prosecuting attorneys and hundreds of additional law enforcement personnel. We beefed up the Coast Guard, solicited and received help from the Defence Department including the Navy, the Army, the Air Force and the Marines. We intensified our diplomatic initiatives which resulted in improved co-operation with the Bahamian Government and some of our Latin American friends. The results have been gratifying." 20
In the South Florida area, drug arrests increased 27 per cent. Seizures of cannabis increased 23 per cent and cocaine 54 per cent. In the first 15 months of the Task Force's operations, 10 million pounds (4.5 million kilograms) of cannabis and over 17 thousand pounds (7.7 thousand kilograms) of cocaine were seized in and around the South Florida area. The street value of those drugs is approximately $US 5 billion. 20
One consequence of the progress against illicit drugs in the South Florida region has been changing tactics and innovations by drug smugglers. The co-ordinated vigorous activities of the South Florida Task Force caused disruption in the patterns and routes of illicit drug traffic, especially operations out of the Caribbean and Central and South America. Consequently, there has been increased illicit drug traffic in other regions : the Atlantic Coast, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican border. This diversion but continuation of illicit drug traffic led President Reagan to announce two major national initiatives modeled after the South Florida Task Force.
20Vice-President George Bush, remarks before the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., l 7 June 1983.
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1983-01-01_4_page005.html