Miami Heat: Restoring a River’s Reputation

f you happen to be in downtown Miami and ask a hotel concierge for directions to the Miami River, you're likely to get a puzzled look. And if you ask the proprietor of a local bookstore if he has anything on the river's history, he might even discourage you: "Other than the fact that they find bodies there occasionally, I don't know anything about it. And don't use my name if you write that down."

Until recently, the river's rough reputation was well-deserved, says James McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control. The 5 1/2 -mile long river, which empties into the Port of Miami, was a major gateway for smuggling drugs into south Florida. The extent of the problem became clear when the Florida Office of Drug Control began a study of security at the state's 14 deepwater ports two years ago.

Port security, as Florida officials discovered, doesn't end at the port authority line. When investigators looked at the security situation in the Port of Miami, they realized that the smaller, shallow-draft barges and freighters passing through the port and heading to the shipyards up the Miami River were harder to monitor than the larger commercial vessels in the harbor.

Barges, mostly from Haiti, could afford to dock at one of the 32 shipping terminals on the river for weeks at a time. The barges would come in, ostensibly empty except when drugs were found, and load up on food staples, used mattresses, bicycles, five-gallon plastic buckets and other castoffs of a wealthy nation that could be recycled for sale to the poorest people in the hemisphere.

While Customs and Coast Guard officials would inspect the barges and periodically seize drugs, there were too many vessels and too many other priorities for those agencies to focus on the problem. Essentially, the barge operators could afford to wait out the inspectors, says Customs Special Agent Zachary Mann. Haitian welders were so good at creating false compartments for drugs they became known as narco-welders.

Eventually, federal, state and local law enforcement officials worked out a plan to crack down on the traffic more methodically. To get public buy-in, they included business leaders and drug prevention program officials. They launched a six-month campaign, called Operation Riverwalk, to inspect every vessel entering the river. The Coast Guard also began rigorously enforcing safety codes, which immediately put a number of wooden freighters out of business.

Working together was at times extraordinarily frustrating, officers from state, local and federal agencies say. Officials from 19 federal, state and local offices were involved in extensive planning, and others were called on as necessary. The members didn't always share the same priorities, and there were plenty of heated moments. Michael Flint, chief of investigative services at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, says the different agencies managed to work most things out, but it wasn't easy. Personality clashes, different law-enforcement cultures and a reluctance to share information all were factors. The program's early success helped, however. River traffic dropped off enormously, said shipyard owner Bruce Schurger last August. "I'd say my business is off by 40 percent. The barges are backed up in Haiti." Naturally, Schurger and shipyard owners who have seen a drop in business are not crazy about Operation Riverwalk.

When David Miller, managing director of the Miami River Commission, first got involved with the program, he also was concerned. First of all, he hated the name. "Riverwalk" suggested the state was trying to recreate a popular San Antonio tourist attraction in the middle of Miami. "This is a working river," Miller says. There was concern among some local business leaders that the state was trying to make the river safe for high-priced condo developers to move in, driving out the people who live nearby. "The river has a lot of character. We didn't want to lose that," Miller says. After some early heartburn, Miller and others became supporters.

McDonough says it was important that the program focus on more than law enforcement to be successful. By involving community groups and business leaders, people had a stake in the program's success. Six months after the initial surge effort, the barges are still backed up in Haiti, McDonough says.