Feds seize 33,000 pounds of smuggled cocaine and marijuana worth about $438.5 million
Multiple U.S. government law enforcement agencies banded together to seize more than 33,000 pounds of illegal drugs that were just offloaded in Southern Florida. On June 9, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Coast Guard announced a significant offload of drugs that were seized in international waters in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
Agents with the DEA and the crew of the USCG Cutter James offloaded more than 33,000 pounds of cocaine and marijuana – worth an estimated $438.5 million – at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
DEA Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea, along with Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf; Admiral Karl Schultz, Commandant of the Coast Guard; Admiral Craig Faller, Commander U.S. Southern Command; and Captain Jeffrey Randal, Commanding Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter James, made the yesterday during a press conference at the offload site.
“Today we witness another blow to drug trafficking organizations attempting to smuggle their poisons into our country,” said Acting Administrator Shea.
“This offload represents hundreds of millions of dollars in profits that would otherwise go to fueling these organizations and continuing the deadly cycle of drug addiction and violence they promote. DEA, together with our partners, is committed to bringing narco-traffickers to justice, and to dismantling their organizations across the nation and around the world.”
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter James is a 418-foot national security cutter home ported in Charleston, South Carolina, according to News 4 JAX.
Samples of the drugs will be kept for evidence to prosecute the smugglers, the Coast Guard said, but the bulk of it will be given to federal authorities to be destroyed per standard procedure. ~ Sun-Sentinel
For more on this major drug bust, see the video below.
(Source: DEA)
Posted by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
