Officials seize about $300M worth of heroin, cocaine from Mexico, Central America
FORT LAUDERDALE -- The Coast Guard offloaded about 10 tons of cocaine in Florida's Port Everglades on Tuesday, CBS Miami reports.
The drugs were seized along Mexico and Central America by multiple U.S. Coast Guard cutters.
The value of the drugs, taken from suspected smugglers, is around $300 million.
After spending months at sea, Coast Guard Cutter Spencer returned from deployment with a whole lot of new cargo on board -- 10 tons of cocaine and more than 50 pounds of heroin.
"This represents a very significant disruption to the supply chain of various transnational criminal organizations," said Cdr. John McTamney, Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Cutter Spencer.
Most of the drugs were seized during difficult missions in southern waters by air and boat.
The Coast Guard said it intercepted 14 different suspected drug smuggling runs, which were often loaded with pure, uncut cocaine.
Cdr. McTamney described how risky interdiction can be.
"It often happens at night," he explained. "We're maneuvering toward a vessel that is not lit at all with the proper navigation lights and is trying to evade us at a high rate of speed."
Pictures show the seized drugs by the caseload on Cutter Spencer's flight deck, taken from sophisticated illegal drug operations.
McTamney said this is $300 million "worth of cocaine that Americans won't be buying, won't be using and won't suffering from."
From Port Everglades, some of this ten-ton drug bust will be held over as evidence for convictions in smuggling cases.
The rest of the $300 million worth of drugs will likely be destroyed.
