U.S. Coast Guard shows off 18.5 TONS of cocaine worth $500MILLION they have seized from boats heading to America.

The US Coast Guard has showed off the massive haul of cocaine they have seized from traffickers heading to America. 


A multinational operation led to the seizure of 18.5 tons of cocaine, worth $500million on US streets. The drugs were taken from boats off the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America. The confiscated drugs were unloaded on huge pallets at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday. 

Working in conjunction with other U.S. law enforcement agencies as well as their counterparts in the other countries, the Coast Guard Cutter James crew was able to intercept 15 drug smuggling vessels in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, according to a press release from the U.S. 

Coast Guard. A Coast Guard video shows a raid conducted at night in which a man operating a boat that was leading a minor fleet is dumping the drugs into the choppy waters. The Cutter James was responsible for nine seized cases containing an estimated 19,288 pounds of cocaine off the busy waterway. 

A multinational search spearheaded by the Coast Guard Cutter Campbell was responsible for seizing a case with an estimated 5,441 pounds of cocaine. '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 third largest seizure, led by the Coast Guard Cutter Spencer, decommissioned nearly 4,497 pounds of cocaine from a smuggling boat. A separate transnational search led by the Coast Guard Cutter Active captured two cases carrying 3,148 pounds. 

The operation, which included the participation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, led to the arrest of 49 people, according to Navy Times. 

The Coast Guard had previously delivered 39 tons of seized cocaine to Port Everglades on five different occasions from February to September which carried a staggering street value of $1.151billion, the Sun Sentinel reported.