$350M Worth Of Cocaine & Marijuana Seized During 3-Month Operation Across Americas

June 06: The U.S. Coast Guard completed a massive offload of narcotics Thursday, which were seized at sea during a three-month-long operation.

The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Hamilton offloaded about 26,000 pounds of cocaine and 1,500 pounds of marijuana at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale.

Local media captured footage of rows of pallets stacked with the narcotics before the unloading.

Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy ships worked together to confiscate the drugs from vessels in international waters off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America.

Commanding officer of the cutter Hamilton, Capt. Mark Gordon said narcotics weren’t the only illegal goods collected.

“During the boarding of an Ecuadorian fishing vessel on behalf of the government of Ecuador, this team found illegal weapons hidden on board and other evidence of nefarious activity,” Capt. Gordon said.

Crew members were praised for sailing close to 10,000 miles to keep what Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan calls poison, out of American communities.

“Three-hundred fifty million dollars of street value that’s not going to go to some of the most violent criminals in the world in this hemisphere do let me just say thank you first to the team of Hamilton,” said McAleenan.

Source: CBS Miami