EXERCISE TRADEWINDS 2012

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
U.S. Marine Cpl. Aaron M. Kappler points out shot impacts to a Haitian Special Weapons and Tactics police officer at Barbados Defence Force Base Paragon, Christ Church, Barbados, during Exercise Tradewinds 2012 on June 16, 2012. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Nana Dannsaappiah 

Face of Defense: Marines Train Caribbean Troops, Police
By Marine Corps Cpl. Nana Dannsaappiah
Marine Corps Reserve
CHRIST CHURCH, Barbados, June 19, 2012 - On a grassy hill here overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on June 16, a handful of U.S. Marine reservists from Headquarters Company, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, taught law enforcement techniques to military and civilian members representing a group of Caribbean nations during Exercise Tradewinds 2012.

The San Bruno, Calif.-based Marines conducted law enforcement and human rights awareness training with the partner nations.

The U.S. Southern Command-sponsored exercise, officials said, included representatives from the Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, and Air Force, and other government agencies.  Law enforcement personnel from the Caribbean included Antigua-Barbuda, Barbados, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

"We're not so much focused on shooting, as much as the communication of shooting, teamwork, movement and reloading," said U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Joseph Neil, assigned to Headquarters Co., 23rd Marine Regiment.

Those attending will be able to integrate the law enforcement skills they learn here and teach it to their units, officials said. Throughout Tradewinds 2012, they will receive additional training on improvised explosive devices to help overcome booby traps they routinely face on counter-narcoterrorism operations.

"What we learn from here is very beneficial because we go on a lot of patrols and marijuana operations," said Lieutenant Steve Benny of the Trinidad and Tobago Army Learning Center.

The police techniques and tactics that the Caribbean troops learn will make it easier for them to work with their neighbors as they share common goals, officials said. The Caribbean military and police routinely work together in efforts to deter organized crime in the region.

"If there is standardization across the islands, it makes deployments easier," Benny said.
For the United States, the exercise is a cost effective technique to enhance abilities of allied nations to respond to a wide variety of regional security threats.
"Any opportunity to do a 'train the trainer' event is better because they can go back and continuously multiply it within their troops," said U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Daniel Temple, an operations officer with the 23rd Marine Regiment.

Tradewinds 2012 is an annual interagency, multinational exercise designed to enhance the collective abilities of Caribbean partner nation defense forces and constabularies in order to counter transnational organized crime, and conduct humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, officials said.

USS NICHOLAS RECOVERS OVER 4900 LBS OF COCAINE

 Photo Left :  USS Nicholas.  Credit:  U.S. Navy.
FROM:  U.S. NAVY
USS Nicholas Recovers Approximately 4,900 Pounds Of Cocaine 


From U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affairs
USS NICHOLAS, At Sea (NNS) -- Guided-missile frigate USS Nicholas (FFG 47) recovered 112 bales of cocaine, weighing approximately 4,910 pounds, during an interdiction off the Pacific Coast of Colombia in support of Operation Martillo, June 4.

The estimated wholesale value of the recovered drugs is more than $60 million, with an estimated street value of more than $367 million.

In a coordinated effort, crews from Nicholas, the U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET), the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Sherman, and the Colombian navy disrupted a major shipment of contraband.

U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard LEDET personnel recovered contraband that was jettisoned from the go-fast before the vessel entered Colombian territorial waters. The Colombian navy was in the vicinity and launched a patrol boat to intercept and seize the go-fast.

Photo Above 120506-N-ZZ999-002 PACIFIC OCEAN (May 6, 2012) Alleged drug traffickers are arrested by Colombian naval forces in this still frame from a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) video camera from a U.S. Navy helicopter assigned to the guided-missile frigate USS McClusky (FFG 41) during interdiction operations in the eastern Pacific coastal waters of Colombia. The helicopter maintained surveillance as the Colombian navy made the arrest. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)  

Since the beginning of their deployment in January, USS Nicholas and the embarked LEDET has seized approximately 10,148 pounds of cocaine, with a total estimated street value of more than $759 million.

Operation Martillo (Spanish for 'hammer') is a U.S., European, and Western Hemisphere partner nation effort targeting illicit trafficking routes in coastal waters along the Central American isthmus. U.S. military participation is being led by Joint Interagency Task Force-South, a component of U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), while U.S. maritime law enforcement and the interdiction phase of operations in the region occurs under the tactical control of the 11th Coast Guard District, based in Alameda, Calif., or by law enforcement agencies of partner nations in the region. Operation Martillo is a component of the U.S. government's coordinated interagency regional security strategy in support of the White House strategy to combat transnational organized crime and the U.S. Central America Regional Security Initiative.

U.S. Coast Guard LEDETs belong to Tactical Law Enforcement Team South or Pacific Tactical Law Enforcement Team and are an armed deployable specialized force under the U.S. Coast Guard's Deployable Operations Group. They were created to support narcotics interdiction operations aboard U.S. Navy and allied ships and are capable of supporting Department of Defense national defense operations. LEDETs provide specialized law enforcement capability and maritime security capabilities to enforce U.S. laws across a full spectrum of maritime response situations, maritime security augmentation and maritime interdiction anti-piracy operations.

U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet (COMUSNAVSO/C4F) supports USSOUTHCOM joint and combined full-spectrum military operations by providing principally sea-based, forward presence to ensure freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain, to foster and sustain cooperative relationships with international partners and to fully exploit the sea as maneuver space in order to enhance regional security and promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions.