A U.S. Coast Guard crew offloaded a mountain of cocaine worth hundreds of millions of dollars in San Diego, California, on Monday.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Active’s crew offloaded about 27,551 pounds of the drug at the 10th Street Marine Avenue terminal, CBS 8 reported, noting the haul was worth about $203 million.
According to Rear Adm. Jeffrey Novak, deputy commander of Coast Guard Pacific Area, drug smugglers use high-speed panga boats that can go up to 60 miles per hour while laden with the drugs.
He explained that “We utilize our aircraft to try and interdict. We have the ability to call a non-compliant vessel and use force from an aircraft. We can fire warning shots and then disabling fire to shoot out the engines of the fast vessel.”
Images show the crew offloading the drugs packaged in multi-colored boxes:
In a press release Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard said, “The offload is the result of three separate interdictions of suspected drug-smuggling vessels in international waters off the coasts of Mexico, Central America, and South America. Two of the three interdictions were conducted by Active crew members and one by the USCGC Munro (WMSL 755) crew members.”
Officials arrested 12 smugglers who are now facing federal charges in the case. Per NBC 7, authorities said the seizure is a direct result of security being tightened on the nation’s borders.
When speaking of President Donald Trump prioritizing border enforcement, one official at the offloading said, “I think you see it every day by the administration. You have a border that’s been sealed shut, you have an ocean that’s being patrolled constantly, and you have countless lives being saved.”
The seizure was part of Operation Pacific Viper aimed at stopping transnational criminal groups and reducing the amount of illegal narcotics that are coming into the United States, per the CBS article.
The U.S. military has been targeting drug smuggling boats, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said recently the military has “only just begun” its efforts to stop the suspected narco-terrorists, Breitbart News reported.
Meanwhile, President Trump on Monday signed an executive order classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
Breitbart News reported in October 2024 that “Approximately 34.3 tons of fentanyl that made it to the United States via the southern border have been seized since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office — enough to kill more than all the people on Earth.”
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