Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma crew offloads 88 bales of cocaine in Miami

Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma crewmembers offload bales of cocaine at Base Support Unit Miami Aug. 23, 2010. Tahoma crewmembers offloaded 88 bales (5,700 pounds) with an estimated street value of more than $80 million. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Nick Ameen.

Petty Officer 1st Class Larry Berman, a health service technician aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma, stacks bales of cocaine on the pier at Base Support Unit Miami Aug. 23, 2010. Tahoma crewmembers offloaded 88 bales (5,700 pounds) with an estimated street value of more than $80 million. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Nick Ameen.

MIAMI -- Crewmembers from the Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma offloaded 88 bales of cocaine worth more than $80 million, seized from a 30-foot vessel, at Base Support Unit Miami Monday.

While on a routine law-enforcement patrol in the Caribbean Sea Aug. 3, crewmembers aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Forward located a suspicious Honduran-flagged fishing vessel about 27 miles off Honduras. The crew of the Forward boarded the vessel, located 88 bales of cocaine, and detained five suspects. The vessel was later sunk as a hazard to navigation in an undisclosed location.

The five suspects and seized contraband were transferred to the cutter Tahoma for further transfer to Customs and Borders Protection officials ashore in Miami.

The Forward is a 270-foot medium-endurance cutter homeported in Portsmouth, Va.
The Tahoma is a 270-foot medium-endurance cutter homeported in Portsmouth, N.H.

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