Drug trafficking

The Air Force's quiet war on the Latin American drug cartels

As the drug smugglers' go-fast boat streaked across the blue Caribbean Sea in March, carrying more than a thousand pounds of cocaine toward its U.S. destination, they were completely unaware they were being observed from above.

Suddenly, they felt a presence and looked up. Coming at them, low and fast, was the unmistakeable silhouette of one of the nastiest weapons in the Air Force arsenal — a B-1B Lancer, the backbone of America's long-range bomber force.

In a panic, the smugglers scrambled to retrieve all the packages of cocaine aboard and then dumped them over the side, like million dollar buoys spreading out in their wake.