The US coast guard announced on Monday that it had seized more than 76,000lbs of illegal drugs off the coast of Florida – marking the largest drug offload in the 110-year history of the maritime law enforcement agency.
According to a news release from the branch of the US military, officials offloaded approximately 61,740lbs of cocaine and approximately 14,400lbs of marijuana at Port Everglades, Florida, on Monday. The officials said that the total estimated street value of the haul was $473m.
“To put this into perspective, the potential 23m lethal doses of cocaine seized by the US coast guard and our partners are enough to fatally overdose the entire population of the state of Florida, underscoring the immense threat posed by transnational drug trafficking to our nation,” said R Adm Adam Chamie, commander of the branch’s south-east district.
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The seizures were the result of 19 interdictions in international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea between 26 June and 18 August, the agency said.
The operations involved three coast guard cutters, two US Navy warships, a Dutch naval vessel and multiple interagency units, including Department of Homeland Security units. The drugs were transported to port aboard the coast guard cutter Hamilton, the news release added.
“This represents a significant victory in the fight against transnational criminal organizations, highlighting our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the nation from illicit trafficking and its devastating impacts,” Chamie said.
At a news conference on Monday at Port Everglades, coast guard officer Frank Marrano said that “all of these interdictions, drugs – it is the result of four months of hard work that the crew has put in, not only the crew, all of our sisters agencies and our partner nations.
“To be able to take positive steps to keep the United States safe from these drugs, it makes the difficult days worth it,” Marrano added.
Capt John B McWhite, commanding officer of the Hamilton, said that the crew aboard the Hamilton cutter “interdicted 11 go-fast vessels, detained 34 suspected drug traffickers and seized a record 47,000lbs of cocaine”.
The coast guard said that it is “accelerating” its “counter-drug operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean” and expanding efforts 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,” it added.
According to the Navy Times, the previous record for the largest coast guard offload prior to Monday was in 2021, when 61,130lbs of illicit drugs were seized.
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