Fat Albert uses the finest US "look down, shoot down" RADAR. It is used to spot
small fiberglass sailboats. A pickup truck would glow like a highway flare.
It's probably how they spotted it in the first place.
Once they get the fix the USGC just drives to the GPS coordinate until they
pick it up on the shipboard RADAR. Prior to the new "homeland" money the USCG
stayed up to the state of the art in the Florida straits with DEA money. The
same was true of the air guard and the police agencies. The drug war gobbles up
an appreciable part of a billion a year, a big chunk of it on the Gulf coast.
Everyone with a badge, a boat or an airplane is getting a taste.