The crew of the US Coast Guard Cutter ‘James’ offloaded approximately 18.5 tons of cocaine in Port Everglades Thursday, worth an estimated $500 million wholesale seized in international waters in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The drugs were interdicted off the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America by multiple USCG cutters, as a result from 15 separate, suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions by the Coast Guard.
Numerous US agencies from the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security are involved in the effort to combat transnational organized crime. The Coast Guard, Navy, Customs and Border Protection, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement along with allied and international partner agencies play a role in counter-drug operations.
The fight against transnational organized crime networks in the Eastern Pacific requires unity of effort in all phases from detection, monitoring and interdictions, to prosecutions by US Attorneys in California, on the East Coast, and in Puerto Rico.
The Coast Guard increased US and allied presence in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Basin, which are known drug transit zones off of Central and South America, as part of its Western Hemisphere Strategy.
During at-sea interdictions in international waters, a suspect vessel is initially located and tracked by allied, military or law enforcement personnel. The interdictions, including the actual boarding, are led and conducted by US Coast Guardsmen. The law enforcement phase of counter-smuggling operations in the Eastern Pacific are conducted under the authority of the Coast Guard 11th District headquartered in Alameda, California.
This multi-ton offload of cocaine represents not just the work of the men and women of Coast Guard Cutter James, but that of our partners and allies that work every day to dismantle the criminal organizations that seek to profit from trafficking drugs and other illicit items to our shores. It takes a network to defeat a network, and we will continue to expand our capabilities and leverage these partnerships to amplify our impact and stop this illegal trade which threatens our national security and breads instability in our partner nations,
…said Capt. Jeffrey Randall, commanding officer of the cutter James.
The cutter James is a 418-foot legend-class cutter homeported in North Charleston, South Carolina. ‘James’ was responsible for nine cases seizing an estimated 19,288 pounds of cocaine.
