Coast Guard offloads more than 8 tons of cocaine — valued at $183M — in South Florida
A U.S. Coast Guard cutter crew on Monday unloaded over 16,000 pounds of cocaine at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale that the agency says is worth hundreds of millions of dollars on the street.
The contraband was delivered on board the Cutter Hamilton, a Charleston, South Carolina-based ship that is part of Interagency Task Force-South, which operates from Key West.
Besides the more than 8 tons of cocaine, which the Coast Guard says has a street value of around $183 million, the Hamilton — with a crew of around 150 — brought six people suspected of smuggling the drugs to face federal charges.
The task force patrols a wide swath of water from the Caribbean to the eastern Pacific Ocean. The Coast Guard said in a press release the drugs offloaded Monday were confiscated during interdictions off South and Central America on the Pacific Ocean.
“I’m proud of our accomplishments during this three-and-a-half-month deployment,” Capt. Justin Carter, commanding officer of the Hamilton, said in a statement. “The exceptional crew of Hamilton, with the support of an aircrew from Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Squadron, demonstrated the greatest professionalism, seamanship and airmanship while executing this important and challenging mission at sea in service to nation.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 5:46 PM.
