AIR BRIDGE DENIAL: SEPTEMBER 2008 PROGRAM UPDATE

UNCLAS BOGOTA 004007 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPARTMENT FOR INL/LP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR PREL MOPS MASS PGOV CO SUBJECT: AIR BRIDGE DENIAL: SEPTEMBER 2008 PROGRAM UPDATE REF: 2003 STATE 265910 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. This is the monthly Air Bridge Denial (ABD) activity report for September, 2008, as required by Reftel. The Government of Colombia (GOC) sorted 5063 tracks during September. Five were Unknown, Assumed Suspect (UAS). There were no Phase I/II/III events. There was one event in missions in Support of Suppression of Illegal Maritime Traffic (SSIMT) that ended in a law enforcement end game with one GOFAST boat impounded. Four crewmembers were arrested. END SUMMARY. -------------- Tracks -------------- ¶2. (SBU) In September 2008, there were 5063 air tracks over Colombia in September of which five were declared Unknown, Assumed Suspect (UAS). Host Nation responded to all five. Two were not located by the tracker aircraft. The other three were visually identified over the Caribbean and the information was passed on to Central American and Caribbean Law Enforcement Agencies. One of them crashed in the Dominican Republic with four persons aboard dying in the crash. There were an estimated 500 kilograms of cocaine in the aircraft. Another landed in Guatemala, where the four people onboard burned the aircraft before being arrested. -------------- SSIMT -------------- ¶3. (SBU) On September 2, 2008, an SR-560 on SSIMT patrol sighted a vessel in the Caribbean Sea Ocean off the Guajira peninsula coast. A COLNAV vessel was directed to the GOFAST, which was impounded and three crewmembers were arrested. -------------- Flight Operations -------------- ¶3. (SBU) In September 2008, the Citations flew 194 hours in 83 sorties with a 72% OR rate. Of the 83 sorties, 32 were for GOC ABD intelligence gathering and patrolling; five for training; seven were for operational support; 27 were for maritime patrolling, and seven were in reaction to GOC-provided information. The SR-26 aircraft 5741 flew 62 hours in 18 sorties with a 32% OR rate. Seventeen SR-26 sorties were in support of ABD, of which five were maritime missions. One sortie was for non-ABD purposes. BROWNFIELD