More than 76,000 pounds of illegal drugs were seized off Florida, the largest drug offload in the Coast Guard's 110-year history. Officials offloaded approximately 61,740 pounds of cocaine and approximately 14,400 pounds of marijuana at Port Everglades, Florida, with an estimated street value of $473 million. The cocaine haul equated to roughly 23 million lethal doses, enough to fatally overdose Florida's population. The seizures resulted from 19 interdictions in international waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea between 26 June and 18 August. Operations involved three Coast Guard cutters, two U.S. Navy warships, a Dutch naval vessel, multiple interagency units, and the drugs were transported to port aboard the cutter Hamilton.
To put this into perspective, the potential 23m lethal doses of cocaine seized by the US coast guard and our partners are enough to fatally overdose the entire population of the state of Florida, underscoring the immense threat posed by transnational drug trafficking to our nation, said R Adm Adam Chamie, commander of the branch's south-east district. This represents a significant victory in the fight against transnational criminal organizations, highlighting our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the nation from illicit trafficking and its devastating impacts, Chamie said.
At a news conference on Monday at Port Everglades, coast guard officer Frank Marrano said that all of these interdictions, drugs it is the result of four months of hard work that the crew has put in, not only the crew, all of our sisters agencies and our partner nations. To be able to take positive steps to keep the United States safe from these drugs, it makes the difficult days worth it, Marrano added.
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