Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Foreign-Deployed Advisory Support team destroying hashish in Afghanistan (photo-DEA)
Commando teams have become popular not only within the U.S. military, but also with the federal government’s top law enforcement agency for combating drug trafficking.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) now has five Special Forces-like squads of agents trained in military tactics who operate throughout Latin America, according to The New York Times. The DEA has offices in at least 62 countries.
Barred under federal law from arresting foreign nationals on their own soil, the special FASTs (Foreign-Deployed Advisory Support Teams) work with local police to disrupt drug cartel operations. To date, they have operated in Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Belize.
FAST was first created during the George W. Bush administration to go after drug traffickers in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama has continued and expanded the reach of the elite teams.
Many team members are military veterans, including the man in charge of them: Richard Dobrich, a former Navy SEAL.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
D.E.A. Squads Extend Reach of Drug War (by Charlie Savage, New York Times)
Fallen DEA Special Agent Memorialized by District, Colleagues (by Mark Maroney, Williamsport Sun-Gazette)
DEA Serves as Worldwide Spy Organization (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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