The USA’s proximity to high-risk loading ports encourages an increase in narcotics being discharged, with vessels coming from countries such as the Dominican Republic, Columbia, Haiti, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Cocaine has been listed as a frequently seized drug, alongside other narcotics such as Marijuana. Drugs have been found within containers and attached to the vessel’s hull. In countries such as Nicaragua, which act as a transit point between Columbia and Mexico and the USA, small boats and submarines are utilised more than containers or commercial ships.
Guidance has been provided by Shoreline Hudson.