Bahamas Mission: OPBAT program cuts volume of drug traffic through the region

摘要

The long-running multi-agency Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos (OPBAT), spearheaded by the U.S. Coast Guard and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), has dramatically reduced the flow of illegal drugs traveling from the region into the United States. During the 1970s, 80 percent of cocaine that entered the United States came via the Bahamas, according to the DEA. That figure has shrunk to less than 10 percent, as 90 percent of drug traffic entering the United States now comes through the southwestern border, according to the DEA. "We have really seen the threat shift since OPBAT began," said Cmdr. David Billburg, director of the OPBAT operations center in Nassau, the Bahamas.