Published 16 years ago, updated 6 years ago

The FBI has asked noonsite to pass on this information to inform US Sailors worldwide of the role the FBI play in their protection.

The FBI Maritime Liaison Agents are currently focusing their efforts on developing and enhancing liaison relationships within the commercial cruise, cargo, petroleum, and small boat industries, to include specialty nautical stores, dive shops, marinas, and maritime-related businesses. Their hope is that such a focus will serve three purposes:

(1) To gather “intelligence” from subject-matter experts (you) in the maritime domain who know through observation when something is suspicious and quickly report the activity to the FBI for appropriate action;

(2) To develop a robust and mutually supportive maritime industry network through which the FBI can disseminate relevant information and intelligence; and

(3) To learn and become more effective investigators and security partners.

Besides the Terrorism role, the FBI is also responsible for Criminal Activity or incidents where Americans are victims of a crime regardless of their physical location outside of the US.

The FBI function within the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) framework. Specifically, they work side-by-side with designated representatives from the United States Coast Guard (USCG), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and other Federal, State, Tribal and local law enforcement agencies. The FBI is based out of the North Miami Beach field office.

To date the FBI have investigated maritime incidents involving threats (bomb/WMD) to vessels, illegal boardings by activist groups, organized smuggling operations (weapons/ explosives/aliens/narcotics), use of fraudulent mariner documents, unlicensed money transmitting, hijacking of vessels, and suspicious activities (photo taking/strange customer requests/purchase of underwater delivery systems by individuals from “threat countries”). They also investigate general criminal activity occurring on the high seas, to include murder, sexual assault/battery, assault/battery, fraud, theft, and other crimes. Their territory extends from the Brevard County line (which is covered by the Fort Pierce Resident Agency), to the Florida Keys (which is covered by the Key West Resident Agency).

The FBI welcome any contact from US yachtsmen. No contact is too trivial and the FBI will maintain your confidentiality if you so desire. If they are not located in the geographic area to address your stated concerns, they will put you in touch with an MLA in the appropriate field office (whether in the Continental United States or internationally).

Contact Information is as follows:-

Telephone: 305/944-9101 (24-hour Duty Agent) – ask for one of the following agents:

– Special Agent (SA) Skip Hogberg

– SA David Nunez

– SA Tami Kayworth

– SA Michael Weronik

E-mail: Herbert.hogberg@ic.fbi.gov