7th Coast Guard District
U.S. Coast Guard
Media Advisory
***Media Availability*** Coast Guard to offload 15,000 pounds of cocaine in Miami
Media note: Media interested in attending the offload and interviewing crewmembers aboard the cutter should arrive no later than 11:45 a.m. at Coast Guard Base Support Unit Miami located at 100 MacArthur Causeway, Miami Beach, Fla. For more information contact public affairs at 305-415-6683.
MIAMI - Crewmembers from the Coast Guard Cutter Oak are scheduled to offload 15,000 pounds of cocaine worth more than $180 million, seized from a self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS), at Base Support Unit Miami Tuesday at 12 p.m.
The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Seneca, a medium-endurance cutter homeported in Boston, interdicted a drug smuggling, SPSS vessel in the western Caribbean Sea July 13.
A C-130 fixed-wing aircrew spotted a suspicious vessel and notified U.S. Customs and Border Protection maritime patrol airplane to further investigate. The CBP crew spotted the SPSS while on patrol and alerted the Seneca crew of the location.
With the assistance of the Customs and Border Patrol airplane, a Seneca-based Coast Guard helicopter crew and pursuit boatcrew interdicted the SPSS and detained its crew. The SPSS sank during the interdiction, but not before a quantity of cocaine was recovered.
The Seneca crewmembers commenced searching for the sunken SPSS on July 13. Several Coast Guard Cutters, the Honduran Navy and FBI dive teams conducted multiple search patterns. The SPSS was located by the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Oak on July 26 using side-sonar equipment.
The U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, Customs and Border Protection, Joint Interagency Task Force South, and partner nation aircraft and vessels work together to conduct counter drug patrols in the Caribbean.
The Seneca is a 270-foot medium-endurance cutter homeported in Boston.
The Oak is a 225-foot sea-going buoy tender homeported in Charleston, S.C.
###
Saving Lives and Guarding the Coast Since 1790.
The United States Coast Guard -- Proud History. Powerful Future.