U.S. Coast Guard reportedly turning boats into floating prisons for drug smugglers

In the war on drugs, the U.S. Coast Guard is reportedly turning its cutter ships into floating prisons.

In fighting the flow of cocaine coming from South and Central America into the U.S., the Coast Guard is deploying ships farther and farther out into the Pacific ocean.

Seth Freed Wessler reported on this for the New York Times and told PRI that, when these drug smugglers are captured, they are taken aboard and sometimes chained to the deck until they can be transported to the U.S. for trial.

However, this waiting period on board can last weeks or even months and the coast guard can do this under the caveat that the smugglers aren't really under arrest until they reach U.S. shores.

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Wessler says that, because of transport delays, the suspected drug smugglers are being carted around for an average of 18 days.

President Trump’s Chief of Staff, General John Kelly, has been a big advocate of pushing our borders further, calling drug smuggling an existential threat to the U.S.

But we have pushed our borders so far out that, according to Wessler, a big question many of these smugglers have is, "how are we in the United States right now?"