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Monday, June 19, 2000 Online Edition 25

U.S. forces assisted in big drug bust

Picture: Members of the Honduran Police and Counter Drug Force climb up
a Jacob's Ladder to a CH-67 Chinnok helicopter hovering overhead.

By CAPT. ERIC HILLIARD

Special to Honduras This Week

SOTO CANO, Comayagua -- What started out as a simple first time training opportunity for Honduran and U.S. forces turned into one of the most complex and successful counter-drug operations ever -- code name: Operation Lifesaver II.

On June 5, intelligence sources learned that there was an 18-wheeler truck known to be moving drugs through the area, and that it was going to be operating within a certain window of time that day.

Later, a truck matching that description was spotted moving through Honduras headed toward Guatemala.

It was stopped and detained at Sinuapa, Ocotepeque by Honduran authorities.

The counter-narcotics team got the call, and within an hour was on their way to the intercept site.

"We got the alert notice and it took approximately 60 minutes to coordinate with the drug dog handlers and others," said Lt. Col. Brian Keeth, Task Force Commander for Central Skies Honduras. "Then, we took one UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter with a DEA agent, dog handler, a dog and seven Honduran counter narcotics agents to the location."

When the team arrived, they found 283 packs of cocaine weighing 1 kilo each inside the truck. The cocaine is said to have a street value of $17,000 to $20,000 per kilo in Miami.

"This was the largest drug bust in history for a Central Skies mission conducted in Honduras," said Keeth.

Keeth also said that this was one of the most challenging and complex operations they had ever done.

Life Saver II was the first time that U.S. aircraft worked side-by-side with aircraft from the Honduran police and the Honduran Air Force.

"One of the strong points for this mission was the fact that we worked with a lot more people than we usually do," said Keeth. "We worked with two different types of police units; the Cobras (special operations police) and the counter-narcotics police. We used two Honduran police helicopters and aircraft from the Honduran Air Force, the Honduran Navy was involved also."

In addition to the drug busts, during the 10-day mission the units accomplished several key training objectives including Jacob's Ladder training and End Game scenario training.

Jacob's Ladder training is designed to give troops the ability to get in and out of areas where it may be impossible for a helicopter to land. For locating and eradicating marijuana fields in mountainous regions, this insertion and extraction tool is ideal. During the end-game scenarios, troops practiced the procedures to stop, detain and arrest drug runners. The training was very thorough and utilized the acting talents of several JTF-Bravo personnel who posed as drug lords during the scenario.

"The main purpose of this mission was to train the Honduran police how to do the air mobile operations in the different types of aircraft using ICON radios, Jacob's Ladder and other training tools," said Keeth.

The good thing about this mission is that we involved so many agencies and personnel that we have ensured that we can continue to do this in the future, Keeth said.

He added that the entire thing came off really well as a combined operation and that the Hondurans had good intelligence and helped put all the pieces together.

Central Skies missions are at its essence, exercises in working together with different organizations. The inherent mission of Central Skies is drug interdiction.

"It's always nice to interdict drugs," said Keeth.

Just as important as the interdiction mission is the engagement mission and being able to pull different groups together to work toward the same end, which is stopping the flow of drugs, Keeth said.

"The people that operate together today will be the people who execute together tomorrow. It adds to the professionalism of our forces as well as their forces," he said.

For Keeth, this will be his last Central Skies mission. In his year-long tour, Keeth has been involved in nine Central Skies missions. "This has been a real exciting thing for me to do this past year. I got to work with a lot of different and diverse elements and the men and women of JTF-Bravo who help make these missions a success. This was a great way to finish out the year," he said.

Capt. Eric Hilliard is director of public affairs for Joint Task Force-Bravo.