A U.S. Coast Guard crew seized roughly 10,000 pounds of cocaine from a fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean, the agency said on Monday. The haul was worth an estimated $74 million.
The drug seizure took place in mid April, after the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Calhoun identified what the agency described as a suspicious fishing vessel some 1,200 miles west of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Sailing through international waters, the boat’s behavior raised alarms about narcotic trafficking, according to the Coast Guard, which sent a small cutter to intercept it and ultimately found the contraband on board.
Five suspected smugglers were apprehended and are in U.S. custody, the Coast Guard said.
“This interdiction demonstrates the Coast Guard’s unwavering commitment to combating transnational criminal organizations,” said Vice Adm. Nathan Moore, commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic Area, in a statement. “Our dedicated crews, in close coordination with interagency and international partners, continue to disrupt the flow of illicit narcotics, which serves as a critical strategic action that disrupts the financial networks of TCOs, undermining their ability to fund further illicit activities that threaten our communities.”
Coast Guard crews have intercepted multiple massive drug hauls over the last few months, in several different regions.
Last week, the Coast Guard cutter Kimball offloaded approximately 18,898 pounds of cocaine — with an estimated street value of more than $214 million — in San Diego, after intercepting six trafficking vessels off the coasts of Mexico and Central America and South America between February and April, federal officials said. Two weeks earlier, CBS Miami reported that another pair of Coast Guard cutters, James and Mohawk, offloaded more than 48,000 pounds of seized illegal drugs valued at more than $509 million at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale.
That offload in Florida came from 13 separate incidents where Coast Guard ships intercepted drug trafficking operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time that the hauls included almost 45,000 pounds of “pure cocaine” and another 3,800 pounds of marijuana.
Earlier this year, the Coast Guard cutter Waesche offloaded more than 37,000 pounds of cocaine seized from smuggling boats off the coasts of Mexico, Central America and South America between December and February. The cutter ship intercepted 11 vessels in that time period, the Coast Guard said, and the haul altogether was valued at more than $275 million.
