On Oct. 1, a pair of green-painted aluminum boats manned by British army engineers speeds down the Shatt Al Arab waterway that connects Iraq's ports of Umm Qasr and Az Zubayr to the Persian Gulf. A mortar attack had just struck the British base at the Shatt Al Arab Hotel where the engineers are based, killing one soldier. Now the engineers are rushing to deliver their passengers at nearby Basra Palace base before the insurgents strike again. But as they pass a small boat with two Iraqi boys inside, the engineers slow their craft to question the boys. There are smugglers on these waters sneaking oil, livestock and weapons to and from Iran, so you never know.

Oil smuggling in particular has been "essentially a legitimate business for 20 years," according to British Army spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge. That commodity and livestock are fairly harmless as far as smuggled goods go, but weapons sneaked in from Iran arm insurgent groups, troublesome tribes and religious militias. Drying up the supply of illegal arms is a major priority of the 8,000 British troops in southern Iraq.

More than a hundred miles north, in the border province of Maysan, where thousands of square miles of marshes straddle the border with Iran, 43-year-old Lieutenant Colonel David Labouchere, commander of the Queen's Royal Hussars battlegroup, leads a patrol comprising three swift, lightly armed Land Rovers. One of his missions in this impoverished province is to keep an eye on the estimated 10,000 canoes that crisscross the marshes. Most of the men in those boats are legitimate fishermen, but a few are smugglers. Labouchere prowls the launches, searching boats for illegal weapons. If he finds any, he sinks the smuggler's boat to teach him a lesson. As a result of his diligence, he claims, the price of an AK-47 in the province has more than quadrupled in recent months. "I suspect a lack of supply," he says.

But the engineers and Labouchere's troops can't be everywhere at once. To bolster the anti-smuggling effort, the British army has equipped local Iraqi army troops with Florida-style swamp boats powered by massive rear-mounted fans. The shallow-draft boats are ideal for marsh patrols, but their major weakness is their top heaviness. And soon after receiving their boats, the Iraqi troops overturned one in a hard turn, spilling themselves and several British soldiers riding along. Fortunately, everyone escaped and the boat and some lost weapons were recovered by British divers who were, in fact, excited to finally have a chance to practice their specialized skills.

Back in Basra, soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers under the leadership of Sergeant Major Tom Darkoh, 44, head out on a foot patrol along the banks of the Shatt. Smugglers find mooring points all along the winding waterway, often under the cover of darkness. To spot them in the act, Darkoh aims to build observation posts. But first he's got to reconnoiter the ground and pick the best spots for observation. Near one shambling residence crawling with grabby children, Darkoh chats up some fisherman tying their boats to the shore. The fishermen are talkative, even friendly. They, at least, have nothing to hide, so Darkoh and his men move on.