U.S. Border Patrol Blackhawk gunship fires on suspected drug smugglers

(Image credit: Josh Denmark/Customs & Border Patrol)

The "war on drugs" has never seemed so literal. On Monday night, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that a Border Patrol aircraft had for the first time fired on a suspected drug-smuggling boat. On Saturday, a Coast Guard C-130 surveillance aircraft had spotted a panga boat off Southern California's Santa Catalina Island, and soon the boat was being followed by Coast Guard and CBP aircraft, including a Blackhawk military helicopter.

When the panga's operators were ordered to stop, they instead threw bales of what appeared to be marijuana overboard, and the Blackhawk fired warning shots across the boat's bow, CBP said in a statement. The panga then stopped, and three men were arrested. "You always want a vessel to stop when they are first directed to do so," said Mitch Pribble, director of air operations for Customs and Border Protection in San Diego. "However, when a suspected criminal chooses to flee, the ability to fire those warning shots gives us another option."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.