Drug Control. Difficulties in Measuring Costs and Results of Transit Zone Interdiction Efforts.

摘要

You asked us to review the air and maritime drug interdiction activities of DOD, the Coast Guard, and Customs in the transit zone. In response to your request, we reviewed and are reporting on (1) the roles of DOD, the Coast Guard, and Customs in transit zone drug interdiction; (2) the extent to which we can identify funds obligated during fiscal years 1998 through 2000 for transit zone drug interdiction for DOD, the Coast Guard, and Customs and what assets (flight hours and ship days) were used for this effort; (3) what results DOD, the Coast Guard, and Customs track to demonstrate their effectiveness in transit zone drug interdiction; and (4) whether multiple agencies are reporting the same cocaine seizures and what procedures and data systems are in place to ensure the accuracy of cocaine seizure data when multiple agencies participate in seizures. To address our review objectives, we interviewed officials from DOD, the Coast Guard, and Customs, as well as from coordinating organizations such as ONDCP, the U.S. Interdiction Coordinator (USIC), the Joint Interagency Task Force East (JIATF-East), the Joint Interagency Task Force West (JIATF-West), and Customs' Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center (AMICC). In addition, we requested from DOD, the Coast Guard, and Customs agency data on budget obligations, flight hours, and ship days; obtained available agency results data; and reviewed annual agency performance reports for fiscal years 1998 through 2000. We reviewed documentation for DOD's, the Coast Guard's, and Customs' drug seizure databases and for two interagency drug seizure databases, and attended a conference on cocaine seizure data. We further assessed the reliability of the cocaine seizure data in the drug seizure databases by comparing the records in the Coast Guard and Customs databases and the two interagency seizure databases for a sample of seizures that were reported in agency press releases in fiscal years 1998 through 2000.