Smugglers Attaching Drugs To Ship Hulls

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The latest technique used by drug smugglers to slip their illegal wares into Port Everglades and other U.S. ports sounds like a far-fetched scene from a James Bond movie.

Scuba divers in foreign ports are using high-power magnets and suction cups to affix nets full of drugs to the bottom of container cargo ships, out of the sight of inspectors and customs officials.

Once the ships arrive in a U.S. port, another team of scuba divers cuts the nets and swims off with the goods.

``It's the hottest technique around,'' said Robert Randolph, vice president of south Florida operations for Crowley Caribbean Transport. ``All they have to do is cut the net, throw it into a speedboat and they're gonzo.''

Underwater smuggling has prompted Crowley and at least one other shipping company to hire scuba divers to inspect the bottoms of their ships when they arrive at Port Everglades.

So far, Crowley divers have uncovered nothing but a few empty nets affixed to ships.

``We didn't know if there had been cargo in there or not, but you don't pick those things up in the water,'' Randolph said.

Mark Vetere, who supervises the U.S. Customs Service's contraband enforcement team at Port Everglades, has few doubts that smugglers have used the underwater method successfully.

``In this port, it would be particularly easy because you have open waterways and lots of activity at night,'' Vetere said.

Smugglers even have taken to hiding people carrying drugs in the bottom of ships.

Mike McNicholas, a former CIA agent who operates a security firm for shipping companies, said some divers were weathering the entire trip to the United States in a small, air-filled cavity near the ship's rudder. The divers swim away once they reach U.S. waters.

McNicholas said six divers, carrying 914 pounds of cocaine, were recently pulled from the cavity of a ship in Galveston, Texas. In Tampa, Fla., officials discovered five divers hiding in a ship cavity, carrying 225 pounds of cocaine.

Drugs are also hidden in the merchandise, packed in furniture legs, hollowed-out fruit and food packages. Another common method is hiding drugs in false walls and under floorboards of containers.

Vetere said that with only six inspectors and three officers with dogs, ``you just can't look at everything.'' Of the 6,000 or so containers that arrive at the port each month, he estimated that 10 percent are inspected.

``The basic problem we have in the Customs Service is (drug smugglers) have unlimited resources and all the time in the world to think (new methods) up,'' he said.