DEA: Flow of Cocaine Hasn't Slowed Amid Boat Strikes

The US has blown up nearly 70 suspected drug boats since September, but a DEA assessment obtained by the Washington Post offers a subdued progress report on what that has meant for the flow of cocaine: "Smugglers have adapted to the intensified pressure," wrote DEA analysts. "Price and availability have not been noticeably affected." Nor has purity, a sign that dealers haven't resorted to diluting their product amid shortages. The story ticks off some of the ways smugglers have adapted since the start of Operation Southern Spear, including by shifting to larger commercial vessels that hug Central American coastlines, where strikes are less likely. They're also relying more on land routes, and flying drugs via clandestine airstrips on the Colombia-Venezuela border.

"When you squeeze the balloon on one side, it always expands on the other side," a DEA official tells the Post. "They always find the weak spots and exploit them." The internal assessment stands in contrast to President Trump's repeated claims that the strikes have slashed maritime drug trafficking by nearly 100%. Still, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell says the operation is doing exactly what is designed to do by disrupting drug-trafficking routes. Smugglers' adaptation "does not indicate the pressure is ineffective," he says. "It demonstrates that we are imposing systemic friction on their operations." CNN notes that the last strike happened on June 21, and it's not clear why they seem to have paused.