John Boozman: “I am a member of the Speaker's Drug Task Force, and we are going to celebrate the third anniversary of the Colombia…”

“I am a member of the Speaker's Drug Task Force, and we are going to celebrate the third anniversary of the Colombia Plan. We have spent a lot of money in Colombia; and we have tried to thwart the growing production and distribution of drugs, primarily heroin and cocaine. I really wanted to see firsthand if we were being effective, if we were spending our money wisely. What I saw was beyond my expectation. I think we are doing very, very well in that area. The Colombians, with our help, are working very hard to eliminate the illegal drug production. They do this by spraying, by intercepting drugs by land, sea and air, and are actively breaking up drug laboratories, places of production. I had an opportunity to ride in the boats that they use to intercept the drug traffic on the high seas. These are little speed boats. They will basically be watching the radar and they will see a little blip. They run out and jump in the boat and race out and intercept the ship, the boat, whatever. We had an opportunity to do this, and it was a lot of fun to see these guys in action, and they did a great job. I was very, very impressed with their professionalism and the fact that they were doing such a good job.”