The US. Coast Guard has handed 14 tons of seized cocaine over to the Drug Enforcement Agency. Almost half their haul came from the bust of a submarine-like vessel.
The drugs, stacked on pallets, were unloaded by cranes on Thursday to the deck of a Coast Guard cutter docked at San Diego’s Broadway Pier before the DEA took custody of the narcotics.
The Coast Guard says the approximate 28,000 pounds of cocaine came from seizures off the coasts of Central and South America in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Dozens of smugglers were arrested.
The drugs, with an estimated street value of at least $400 million, were confiscated between late January and early March. Cutters Bertholf and Valiant were involved in the operations, along with the Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen.
The Coast Guard says more 12,000 pounds of cocaine, almost half the haul, was pulled from a so-called “self-propelled semi-submersible” on March 3.
Other drug seizures were made from “go fast” fishing vessels and approximately 1,500 pounds of cocaine wrapped in bales were found floating in the sea, according to the Coast Guard.