USCG TACLET SOUTH OPA-LOCKA, Florida — Inside the Coast Guard’s “ship in a box,” elite Tactical Law Enforcement Teams rehearse the split-second decisions that make or break a real drug interdiction.
The Coast Guard is seizing record drug hauls at sea. To keep pace, its elite boarding teams train inside a mock ship where the hallways, hatches, and hidden threats are designed to prepare them for the moments when a boarding takes a turn.
From the outside, the “ship in a box” concept looks like a stack of cargo containers, but it’s meant to mimic a large vessel. The inside is customizable, with movable walls and doors to change the layout.
It’s here that the Coast Guard’s elite TACLET, the specialists who engage in high-pressure boardings of boats suspected of carrying illegal drugs like cocaine and marijuana to the US, prepare for all the ways an interdiction might go down.
Business Insider recently got a look at a demonstration of a team training in the “ship in a box,” watching how specialists boarded the vessel, swiftly moved through it to take control, apprehended “traffickers,” and in two instances, neutralized hostile crew members. It’s this kind of training that keeps teams sharp, specialists said.
The “ship in a box” sits on TACLET South’s Opa-locka base, with multiple levels and entry points. A small Coast Guard boat waits alongside it — the team’s starting point for the boarding.
Hanging a ladder from the railing of the ship, the team climbed aboard, keeping eyes and guns trained. Once aboard, they began to work toward taking control of the vessel, from the propulsion systems to suspected traffickers and drugs to any potential weapons or threats that could endanger the operation.
A few scenarios played out inside the “ship in a box.”
In one, the four Coast Guard personnel moved into one room where a drug trafficker stood, unaware of their presence. Not wanting to reveal their status on board, they quietly signaled for him to put his hands up, checked for weapons, and restrained him. In another situation, they woke up two sleeping traffickers.
These were calmer, smoother moments in the interdiction process. The next situation, though, put the team in danger.
In one hallway, an armed smuggler spotted the Coast Guard coming in through a door and began to raise his gun. The team quickly opened fire, putting him on the ground before he could take a shot. They then moved toward a nearby room, eliminating another armed crew member.
Once the threats were neutralized, the ship was secure.
In a real interdiction, the next steps would be questioning the crew, confirming the vessel’s origin, cataloging the drugs, and beginning the long process of building a case.
The “ship in a box” demonstrates the higher level of training that TACLETs have to have. “We train for the ability to do a non-compliant level boarding where we may need to engage threats during a boarding and be able to move through space and execute close-quarters combat skills,” said Cmdr. Chris Guy, commanding officer of the TACLET South.
Right now, the Coast Guard is interdicting substantial quantities of drugs, mostly cocaine, during long deployments in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean. Just last week, the service broke its record for the most cocaine seized by one vessel in a single deployment. Continued demand has raised the bar, prompting more training and flexibility.
“You never know what you’re going to see out there, and we’re trained to react to whatever may happening,” said Lt. Matthew Lesyk, a specialist with TACLET South.
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