Coast Guard Offloads $26 Million In Cocaine, Marijuana Seized At Sea At Port Everglades
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami/AP) — Nearly $26 million in cocaine and marijuana will not make it to the streets of South Florida or anywhere else thanks to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Coast Guard crew members unloaded about 3,900 pounds of marijuana and about 1,100 pounds of cocaine at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday.
The Coast Guard seized the drugs from suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea as part of a counternarcotics operation, the agency said.
"The fight against drug cartels in the Caribbean Sea requires unity of effort in all phases from detection, monitoring and interdictions, to criminal prosecutions by international partners and U.S. Attorneys Offices in districts across the nation," the Coast Guard said in the news release.
The U.S. Southern Command began enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere to disrupt the flow of drugs on April 1, the release said.
Numerous U.S. agencies from the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security cooperated in the effort to combat transnational organized crime.
The Coast Guard, Navy, Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with allied and international partner agencies, play a role in counter-drug operations.
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