The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday (October 27) offloaded in San Diego more than 17 tons of cocaine seized from drug smugglers on the high seas in what has been a record-breaking year for the agency.
“The crew of Waesche is offloading more than 39,000 pounds (17.6 tons) of cocaine worth more than $561,000,000 behind me, that’s just a small portion of what we’ve seized in the fiscal year 2016. This fiscal year, the coast guard seized 417 – nearly 417,000 pounds of cocaine which is a new record for us, the most our service has ever stopped,” Vice Admiral Fred Midgette told reporters at a news conference held aboard the docked cutter Waesche at Naval Base San Diego.
The U.S. Coast Guard said some 5,600 lb. of the record haul was seized from a semi-submersible vessel on September 6. The Coast Guard said it also detained 585 suspected traffickers during the last fiscal year, which the agency said is also a record for them.
The smuggling of cocaine usually runs from Colombia to Mexico or Guatemala, where the cocaine is offloaded for shipment to the United States.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016
