On Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard apprehended and removed more than $63 million worth of cocaine from Florida, involving an operation that resulted in gunshots and a sinking and burning vessel.
The Coast Guard stated in a post on X that more than 4,800 pounds of the substance were offloaded at Port Everglades in Broward County.
“USCG and our international partners continue to interdict drug smuggling ventures in international waters to reduce the flow of illicit drugs, disrupt transnational criminal organizations, and increase interoperability with our partner nations and interagency partners,” the Coast Guard stated.
During two interdictions, the drugs were discovered approximately 24 miles north of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela.
According to a news release from the Coast Guard, a Royal Netherlands Navy ship carrying an American Coast Guard detachment in the Caribbean Sea on one of the interdictions discovered a boat suspected of smuggling drugs on Tuesday.
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Instead of stopping as instructed, the ship picked up more speed and headed in the direction of a Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard vessel known as a fast-raiding interception and special forces craft, or FRISC.
The U.S. Coast Guard and the Dutch Coast Guard were among the crew members aboard the FRISC who fired firearms at the ship “in self-defense and defense of others in response to the life-threatening situation,” according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Three alleged smugglers went overboard as the ship caught fire and sank. Tuesday night, the smugglers’ search was put on hold.
The decision to halt the search was not made hastily, according to Coast Guard District Seven’s Lt. Cmdr. John W. Beal, and the event is still being investigated.
Subsequently, drugs were found on the submerged ship. It was unclear at away what the second interdiction included.
More than nine tons of cocaine were found and removed by the Coast Guard from six different drug smuggling incidents in San Diego last year.
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Off the shores of Central America, Mexico, and South America, the cocaine was found. Its estimated street worth was approximately $239 million.
The Coast Guard reported that the largest seizure, which weighed more than 5,500 pounds, was discovered on a narco-submarine.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered over $10 million worth of cocaine and methamphetamine concealed in vats of jalapeño paste during another fruitful narcotics investigation in San Diego last year.
A 40-foot-long submarine that was transporting 12,000 pounds of cocaine—worth more than $165 million—was apprehended by the Coast Guard in the Pacific Ocean in 2019. In one instance, four alleged smugglers were taken into custody.
