U.S. Attorney James Hurd said Thursday the territory’s biggest drug menace is the use of the virtually unprotected shorelines, cays and inlets as trafficking points.
Speaking to Rotary Club of St. Thomas, Hurd said drug-use problems locally are minimal compared with the smuggling and trafficking of cocaine, marijuana and other illegal drugs through the local area. "We have a lot of drugs coming through here," he said.
Trying to stem the movement of drugs into the mainland United States, he said, is fighting a battle with a constantly shifting front line — at present centered in the Eastern Caribbean.
Especially since a law-enforcement net was pitched along the U.S. Southeast Coast, he said, trafficking has focused on the Caribbean, and "We tend to be a staging point for drugs to reach Puerto Rico and the United States mainland."
Another concern to federal law-enforcement authorities, Hurd said, is the recognition that as their tactics become increasingly sophisticated, so do those of the traffickers.
For example, he said, drug-trafficking smugglers often avoid detection by using electronic equipment such as Global Positioning Satellite systems and other devices aimed at pinpointing specific locations.
Hurd also spoke of efforts by his office to address public corruption and violations of environmental law, as well as the overall mission of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Virgin Islands.
