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NATIONAL: Coast Guard boards submarine loaded with drugs

by MyParisTexas
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ALAMEDA, Calif. – The U.S. Coast Guard released body cam video of an intense drug bust at sea, showing crew board a submarine-type vessel smuggling drugs.

The vessel was carrying over 16,000 pounds of cocaine.

This was just one of 14 recent U.S. Coast Guard busts at sea off the coasts of Mexico, Central, and South America, netting more than 39,000 pounds of cocaine, worth an estimated $569 million.

Vice President Mike Pence attended a Coast Guard drug offload Thursday in San Diego.

The drugs represent 14 separate suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions and disruptions off the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America by three Coast Guard cutters between May and July 2019.

Pence; James W. Carroll, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy; Uttam Dhillon, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration; and Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, commander of Coast Guard Pacific Area, are scheduled to visit Munro and give remarks.

Numerous U.S. agencies from the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security cooperated in the effort to combat transnational organized crime. The Coast Guard, Navy, Customs and Border Protection, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with allied and international partner agencies, play a role in counter-drug operations. The fight against drug cartels in the Eastern Pacific requires unity of effort in all phases from detection, monitoring and interdictions, to criminal prosecutions by U.S. Attorneys in districts across the nation.

The Coast Guard increased U.S. and allied presence in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Basin, which are known drug transit zones off of Central and South America, as part of its Western Hemisphere Strategy. During at-sea interdictions, a suspect vessel is initially detected and monitored by allied, military or law enforcement personnel coordinated by Joint Interagency Task Force-South based in Key West, Florida. The law enforcement phase of counter-smuggling operations in the Eastern Pacific is conducted under the authority of the 11th Coast Guard District, headquartered in Alameda, California. The interdictions, including the actual boarding, are led and conducted by members of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Source: United States Coast Guard 

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL 755) crew members inspect a self-propelled semi-submersible June 19, 2019, in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Coast Guard crews seized more than 39,000 pounds of cocaine and 933 pounds of marijuana, worth a combined estimated $569 million, through 14 separate suspected drug smuggling interdictions and disruptions off the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America by three Coast Guard cutters between May and July 2019. U.S. Coast Guard photo

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