Law Enforcement Detachments

Counter-drug operations are the LEDETs primary mission, although they also conduct other military indication mission types. Beginning in May 1993, LEDETs began deploying aboard foreign as well as U.S. naval vessels. LEDETs have successfully deployed aboard vessels of the British Royal Navy, the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Belgian Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy.[4][7][8][9] LEDETs have successfully seized numerous smuggling vessels including go-fast boats, larger fishing vessels, and self propelled semi-submersible vessels and as of March 2007, LEDETs had taken part in nine of the eleven largest cocaine seizures.[10]

The first joint U.S. Coast Guard-U.S. Navy airborne use of force interdiction occurred on 10 September 2006 when USS John L. Hall, LEDET 408 from TACLET South, and Detachment 1 from U.S. Navy Helicopter Anti-Submarine (Light) Squadron 60 (HSC-60) intercepted a go-fast boat north of the Colombian coast.[11][12]

On 13 September 2008 LEDET 404 deployed aboard USS McInerney seized a 59-foot (18 m) self-propelled, semi-submersible (SPSS) vessel 350 miles (560 km) west of Guatemala during a nighttime boarding. The SPSS had been detected by a U.S. Navy patrol aircraft which vectored McInerney towards the vessel. McInerney launched two small-boats to interdict the vessel and LEDET 404 boarded the vessel under cover of darkness effectively surprising the crew. Upon realizing that they were being boarded, the smugglers first tried to throw the boarding team from the vessel by rapidly reversing the engines and then opened seacocks to scuttle the vessel but then complied with the boarding team’s orders to close them again. The vessel was found to be carrying seven tons of cocaine.[13]

In April 2010, a LEDET deployed aboard McInerney utilized an unmanned aerial vehicle, namely a MQ-8 Fire Scout, to interdict a go-fast vessel carrying approximately 570 lb (260 kg) of cocaine. During nighttime hours, the Fire Scout detected a cocaine laden go-fast vessel transiting in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. It was able to covertly monitor the go-fast for three hours, capturing video evidence of the go fast rendezvousing with a logistics/refueling vessel. The LEDET, launching from McInerney, nabbed both the go-fast and the logistics vessel, seizing approximately 130 lb (60 kg) of cocaine and causing the drug runners to jettison another 440 lb (200 kg).[14]

In July 2019, a LEDET from the Pacific Tactical Law Enforcement Team deployed aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Munro interdicted a Self-Propelled Semi-Submersible. A LEDET member was captured on film jumping onto the vessel, causing it to heave to. The dramatic video went viral and was cited by the President of the United States. [15]

A member of LEDET 106 performs a security sweep aboard a tanker in the North Persian Gulf

While counter-drug law enforcement is one of the LEDETs' largest missions, they have played an important role in military maritime interdiction and maritime security operations, conducting boardings and assisting in training U.S. and allied boarding teams.

During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991, ten four-member LEDETs were deployed to the Persian Gulf to support the enforcement of the United Nations sanctions against Iraq. The first boarding of an Iraqi vessel conducted by a LEDET occurred on 30 August 1990. Five days later, a Coast Guard-led boarding team from USS Goldsborough seized control of the Iraqi cargo ship Zanoobia and took it to Oman after the master refused to take his ship to a non-Iraqi or Kuwaiti port. Of the six hundred boardings conducted by U.S. naval forces, Coast Guard LEDETs either led or supported approximately sixty percent. LEDETs also assisted in training allied boarding teams and, shortly after the beginning of Operation Desert Storm, the LEDET aboard USS Nicholas assisted in clearing eleven Iraqi oil platforms and taking twenty three prisoners.[16]

In November 1993 four LEDETs were deployed aboard NATO vessels in Southern Europe to support the operations enforcing the United Nations embargo against the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav Wars.[17]

Law Enforcement Detachments also played a role in the Iraq War. Two LEDETs were already deployed to the Northern Persian Gulf before preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom began. During Operation Iraqi Freedom LEDETs were deployed aboard navy coastal patrol vessels.[18] On 24 April 2004 Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan Bruckenthal, assigned to LEDET 403 deployed aboard USS Firebolt, was killed in action at the Khawr Al Amay Oil Terminal off the coast of Iraq in a terrorist-suicide bombing.[19] Petty Officer Bruckenthal was the first Coast Guardsman killed in action since the Vietnam War and was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.[20]

A boarding team from USS Gettysburg and Law Enforcement Detachment 409 capture suspected pirates off Somalia.

LEDETs deployed aboard U.S. Navy ships as part of Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151) to conduct counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia.[21] On 13 May 2009 LEDET 409 assisted in the first capture of a pirate "mother ship" by CTF-151 after a U.S. Navy helicopter responding to a vessel under attack by pirates located a suspected pirate dhow. LEDET 409 and a Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) team from USS Gettysburg boarded the dhow and apprehended seventeen suspected pirates after finding assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher aboard.[22][23]

In May 2010, another LEDET operating in the Gulf of Oman with USS San Jacinto stopped a dhow which had been hijacked by pirates. They captured 13 pirates and freed the Yemeni mariners.[24]

LEDETs have conducted operations to interdict illegal migrants including Operation Able Vigil in 1994.[25] One of the most dangerous migrant interdiction operations occurred in September 1998 after USCGC Douglas Munro interdicted the motor vessel Chih Yung with 172 Chinese migrants aboard. The cutter requested support in handling the migrants and two teams from PACTACLET were deployed to assist. The LEDET and the cutter's boarding team had to combat riots, hunger strikes, and suicide attempts before all 172 migrants were turned over to Immigration and Naturalization Service officials in San Diego.[26]