During a recent routine patrol in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba came across something you don’t normally see in the sea: 4,510 pounds of cocaine.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the Escanaba was alerted by a U.S. maritime patrol plane that a crew on a suspected narco-terrorist ship was tossing illegal goods overboard off the coast of Manta, Ecuador. So, the Escanaba sent an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew to investigate and mark the suspected drugs.
To recover the contraband, Escanaba’s crew launched the helicopter aircrew again and sent out its over-the-horizon cutter pursuit boat crew. The boat crew then collected over 4,510 pounds of cocaine and returned it to the cutter.
“Operation Pacific Viper plays a central part of President Trump’s fight against the cartels at sea, cutting off their ability to make money by trafficking their poison into our country,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “This operation has already seized over 215,000 pounds of cocaine and has arrested over 160 suspected narco-traffickers. The brave men and women of the Coast Guard are saving American lives by keeping these deadly drugs out of our communities and off our streets.”
The U.S. Coast Guard has seized billions of dollars worth of cocaine over the past year
The massive drug seizure was part of Operation Pacific Viper, which has expedited counter-drug operations in the Eastern Pacific, a well-traveled route for drug smuggling from Latin America.
It comes a year after crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stone were lauded for offloading over 45,600 pounds of cocaine at Port Everglades in Florida. The seized drugs were reportedly worth more than $517.5 million in wholesale value and more than $2 billion on the street.
Two months ago, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche crew offloaded more than 37,000 pounds of cocaine in San Diego with an estimated street value of more than $275 million.