Bales of Cocaine Unloaded by Miami Coast Guard Operation
Members of the US Coast Guard Cutter Legare were seen unloading 127 bales of cocaine, which has a street value of about $350 million, off a ship in Miami. Each brick weighed about 80 lbs. The cocaine was seized in two separate operations in the Southwestern Caribbean as part of Operation Martillion, which began in 2012.
Operation Martillion – which means “hammer” in Spanish – is a drug-busting cooperation between the United States, Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica. The countries have bilateral agreements that allow them to board each other’s ships to stop drug shipments, such as the latest cocaine busts.
“This seizure is just another successful example of our cooperation with our partners to maintain a forward presence in the Caribbean Sea,” Marilyn Fajardo, deputy public affairs officer for the U.S. Coast Guard, told the Miami Herald. “This is one of our core missions.”
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Junior Grade Meaghan Gies said that about 80% of cocaine in the United States comes in by ship. “We can safely assume that these drugs probably would have ended up here,” she said.
The first cocaine shipment bust occurred on March 15th, about 100 miles south of Jamaica. Officials boarded a fishing vessel suspected of bringing cocaine to the United States. The ship caught fire, and Canadian officials rescued 6 crew members. While transporting the crew to Jamaica, the Canadian crew found 97 bales, or about 2,400 kilos, of cocaine floating in the water.
The second cocaine bust occurred on March 19th, when US Coast Guard officials spotted a go-fast vessel traveling between Colombia and Honduras. When the boat ignored verbal commands to stop, officers shot warning shots, then shots to disable the boat’s engine. When the boat finally stopped because the engine was destroyed, Coast Guard officers spotted someone throwing bales of cocaine into the water. The crew recovered about 30 bales, worth around $30 million. Five Colombian nationals were taken back to Colombia to be prosecuted.
“We hope with these drug offloads that we are sending a clear message that the Coast Guard means business,” said Marilyn Fajardo, deputy public affairs officer for the U.S. Coast Guard said. “Our crews are out there every day risking their lives to protect our U.S. borders.”
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