U.S. Coast Guard: Over $517.5 Million in Illicit Drugs Interdicted in Eastern Pacific Ocean
The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stone offloaded approximately 45,600 pounds of illicit narcotics worth more than $517.5 million at Port Everglades, Thursday.
The seized contraband was the result of 14 interdictions in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, and 35 suspected smugglers were transferred ashore to face federal prosecution in U.S. courts.
The following assets and crews were involved in the interdiction operations:
- U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stone (WMSL 758)
- U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk (WMEC 913)
- U.S. Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) Jacksonville
- U.S. Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team-Pacific (PAC-TACLET)
- Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATFS)
- Eleventh Coast Guard District
Detecting and interdicting illicit drug traffickers on the high seas involves interagency and international coordination. Joint Interagency Task Force-South, in Key West, conducts the detection and monitoring of aerial and maritime transit of illegal drugs. Once an interdiction becomes imminent, the law enforcement phase of the operation begins, and control of the operation shifts to the U.S. Coast Guard for the interdiction and apprehension phases. Interdictions in the Eastern Pacific Ocean are performed by members of the U.S. Coast Guard under the authority and control of the Eleventh Coast Guard District, headquartered in Alameda, California.
The Coast Guard continues increased operations to interdict, seize and disrupt transshipments of cocaine and other bulk illicit drugs by sea. These drugs fuel and enable cartels and transnational criminal organizations to produce and traffic illegal fentanyl, threatening the United States.
Each of these interdictions initiate criminal investigations by federal law enforcement partners. Several were tied to the transnational criminal organizations responsible. Drug evidence from these cases is linked to cartels recently designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, including Sinaloa and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generaciόn. These interdictions denied those criminal organizations more than half a billion dollars and provide critical evidence for their total elimination.
USCGC Stone is one of four 418-foot Legend-class national security cutters homeported in Charleston, South Carolina under U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Command. The U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Law Enforcement Academy where Coast Guard boarding officers train to conduct these missions, in Charleston, celebrated its 20th anniversary on March 14.
