The Coast Guard recently made the largest and third largest single cocaine seizures in its history in back-to-back seizures after discovering a combined 56,397 pounds of cocaine aboard two fishing vessels, the Lina Maria and San Jose, southwest of the Galapagos Islands.  Both of the seizures were made by Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETs) deployed on U.S. Navy vessels.

The Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater. Fla., HC-130 1717 crew involved in the San Jose case, as well as a 5.5 ton bust on another vessel two days later, will be receiving  awards for their performance tomorrow at 9 a.m.

On Sept. 23, working as part of a "Double Eagle" package with a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement P-3 maritime patrol aircraft from Corpus Christi, Texas, the crew of HC-130 1717 found the San Jose 650 miles southwest of the Galapagos Islands and provided excellent surveillance of the vessel that began a two-day interdiction operation and resulted in the seizure of 26,720 pounds of cocaine, third largest in Coast Guard history.  

On Sept. 25, the 1717 crew assisted in the location and interdiction of the Cielo Azul, netting another 5.5 tons of cocaine.  The 1717 identified the vessel and vectored in the USS Curts, allowing the embarked Coast Guard law enforcement team to board the Cielo Azul and discover the illegal narcotics it was attempting to smuggle.

These interdictions cap a record shattering year for maritime drug interdictions in which more than 240,518 pounds of cocaine, worth approximately $7.7 billion, were captured from smugglers.  The previous annual record of 138,393 pounds was surpassed May 29 with the seizure of 4,300 pounds of cocaine off a go-fast vessel in the Eastern Pacific.

“Vastly improved intelligence sharing, more coordinated operations with our enforcement and intelligence partners, and better resources meant our cutter and aircraft crews are increasingly finding themselves in the right place at the right time, with the right capabilities to detect and intercept any threat,” said Adm. Thomas H. Collins, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. “The Coast Guard is committed to denying the seas to those who wish to harm our citizens, and this disruption of the illegal drug trade is part of our successful, layered homeland security strategy.”

Both record seizures were Operation Panama Express cases which are coordinated through an interagency task force lead by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa. 

USS Curts intercepted the Lina Maria and USS Crommelin interdicted the San Jose; both vessels were boarded by an embarked Coast Guard LEDET.  The team discovered the bales hidden in a sealed ballast tank on board the Lina Maria and took 10 crewmembers into custody.  The cocaine was found in a fish hold buried under ice and fish on board the San Jose and eight crewmembers were taken into custody.  The U.S. Attorney indicted the crewmembers of the Lina Maria in Tampa, Fla., for their alleged roles in the attempted smuggling of the cocaine.

Drug seizure totals in the Caribbean were nearly doubled this year from the previous year, with 57,000 pounds of cocaine and 23,500 pounds of marijuana being stopped in 38 separate smuggling events also resulting in 124 arrests. (A chart of Caribbean drug seizure activity can be downloaded by clicking here.)

These successful counter-drug operations are the result of coordination by Joint Interagency Task Force South, DEA, FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security, and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Investigation in southern Florida, and the cooperation from several international partners.