The U.S. Coast Guard has announced the largest drug seizure in American history, confiscating more than 76,000 pounds of illegal narcotics valued at $473 million during operations in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
The unprecedented 76,140-pound haul, conducted through 19 interdictions between late June and mid-August, included over 61,000 pounds of cocaine and nearly 16,000 pounds of marijuana. Officials called the bust a major blow against transnational cartels smuggling drugs into the United States.
โThis 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,โ said Rear Adm. Adam Chamie, commander of Coast Guard District Seven. โThese men and women put themselves in harmโs way time and again to stop the bad guys, apprehend the smugglers, and seize the drugs.โ
Chamie underscored the danger posed by the haul, noting that the cocaine alone โ 61,740 pounds โ equals about 23 million potentially lethal doses. โThatโs enough to fatally overdose the entire population of the state of Florida,โ he said.
The seizures were tied to Operation Pacific Viper, a new Homeland Security initiative designed to surge maritime interdictions before smuggling networks can reach U.S. shores. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the operation as an aggressive push to โstop the cartels and criminal organizationsโ at sea.
The first seizure under Pacific Viper took place on June 26, when a maritime patrol aircraft detected two vessels near the Galapagos Islands. Coast Guard crews intercepted more than 8,700 pounds of cocaine in just two days.
Video footage released Monday showed smugglers tossing contraband overboard as the Coast Guard closed in, before being captured by the Cutter Hamilton. The narcotics were offloaded pallet by pallet at Port Everglades, Florida, on Aug. 25, marking the historic seizure.
