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| News Release |
Date: July 20, 2008
Contact: PA3 James Harless |
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Coast Guard to Offload 10,000 Pounds of Cocaine in Miami **Media Availibilty** Editors Note: Media interested in attending the offload and interviewing crewmembers aboard the cutter should arrive no later than 8:00 a.m. at the Coast Guard Integrated Support Command located at 100 MacArthur Causeway, Miami Beach, Fla. MIAMI. - Crewmembers from the Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma will offload nearly 10,000 pounds of cocaine at Sector Miami Monday. While conducting law enforcement patrols in the Caribbean Sea, crewmembers aboard the 270-foot cutter Tahoma, located the 120-foot Honduran flagged vessel, Miss Dayanna, about 76 miles south of Pedro Bank, Jamaica, June 26. The crew boarded the vessel and located nearly 10,000 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated street value of $159 million hidden within the vessel. The seven Hondurans onboard the vessel were detained aboard the Tahoma and later transferred to U.S. Drug Enforcement agents. Miss Dayanna was transferred to the government of Honduras. During a four day period in late June, U.S. and British Navy patrols netted more than 13,000 pounds of cocaine seized from three separate counter-drug interdictions in the Caribbean Sea.
"The combined efforts of Coast Guard, British Navy, and our Interagency Task Force partners patrolling the Caribbean to intercept illegal drugs at sea are remarkable," said Rear Adm. R. Steve Branham, Seventh Coast Guard District commander. "We are pleased to announce that six tons of cocaine with an estimated street value of $227 million will never make it to our streets." Coast Guard Cutters Tahoma and Escanaba are 270-foot medium-endurance cutters homeported in Portsmouth, N.H., and Boston. ###
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