New task force targets smuggling at L.A., Long Beach ports
The Border Enforcement Security Task Force is made up of officers from federal, state and local agencies. It has already seized cocaine bound for Australia and weapons headed for Mexico.
Since it was quietly deployed at the nation's busiest harbor complex in October, a new anti-smuggling task force has seized 140 pounds of cocaine bound for Australia, dozens of weapons headed for Mexico and 20 pounds of meth stashed in cars en route to Hawaii.
Headquartered inside a former detention facility on Terminal Island, the multi-agency Border Enforcement Security Task Force's (BEST) main mission is to "shut down criminal organizations that exploit the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach," said Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Robert A. Schoch.
But it kept a stealthy profile until today, when it was unveiled at a waterfront news conference surrounded by the industrial maze of terminals, massive cranes, big rigs, railroads and tens of thousands of shipping containers it investigates under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security.
The 17-member task force is made up of officers from nine federal, state and local agencies: ICE, the U.S. Secret Service, the California Highway Patrol, the Los Angeles Port Police, the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Federal Air Marshal Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
It was modeled after BEST units already targeting criminal activity at key points along the nation's northern and southern borders from San Diego to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
"We're the first BEST unit to be launched at a seaport," Schoch said.
Similar operations are planned for the ports of New York and Miami.
Los Angeles Port Police Chief Ronald Boyd said the task force has strengthened collaborative ties among agencies that tended to work independently while fighting drug, immigrant, currency and weapons smuggling, trade fraud and cargo theft in the 10,700-acre complex.
Each year, the area handles about 8,000 commercial vessels and 16 million containers crammed with cargo valued at $378 billion -- a tempting target of opportunity for criminal organizations.
"Within weeks of hanging their shingle over the door, they proved themselves with interdictions that have had a major impact on public safety," Boyd said. "They put money, drugs and guns on the table in a remarkably rapid fashion."
