Offshoreonly.com - Go-fast boat caught smuggling cocaine

Navy Delivers $1 Billion in Seized Drugs to Federal Agents
U. S. Coast Guard
April 04, 2005

KEY WEST, Fla. - The crew of the USS Boone turned over more than 32,000 pounds of seized cocaine with an import value of $1 billion to federal agents from Operation Panama Express here today.

The drugs were seized in seven separate cases between Dec. 22, 2004, and Feb. 20, 2005 in the Eastern Pacific.

Case briefs for each seizure follow:

- Dec. 22: The Coast Guard Cutter Alert and a U.S. Navy vessel with an embarked Coast Guard law enforcement detachment (LEDET) teamed up to seize 1,962 pounds of cocaine from a go-fast smuggling boat. (Click here to download a high-res photo of this go-fast.)

- Jan. 18: The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton confiscated 5,833 pounds of cocaine from the Colombian fishing vessel Andres Abel. (Click here to download a high-res photo of this vessel during the boarding. For additional details go to: http://www.uscgpacificarea.com/exter...ction=EXTERNAL. docview&documentID=67246)

- Feb. 6: A Coast Guard LEDET embarked on the USS Boone seized 2,530 pounds of cocaine from the Colombian fishing vessel Don Heri.

- Feb. 16: The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Mellon located 8,800 pounds of cocaine on the Colombian fishing vessel Ranger Yacht. (For additional details go to: http://www.uscgpacificarea.com/exter...ction=EXTERNAL .docview&documentID=64323)

- Feb. 19: A Coast Guard LEDET embarked on the USS Boone seized 2,800 pounds of cocaine froma go-fast smuggling boat.

- Feb. 20: The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton and its armed helicopter crew from Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron Jacksonville stopped two smuggling go-fasts in one day, netting 10,800 pounds of cocaine. (For additional details go to: http://www.uscgpacificarea.com/exter...ction=EXTERNAL .docview&documentID=67246

These seizures were the result of ongoing efforts coordinated between the Eleventh Coast Guard District in Alameda, Calif., Joint Interagency Task Force South located here, which is a component of the U.S. Southern Command, and Operation Panama Express (See NOTE below), a long-standing Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force based in Tampa, Fla. The multiple agencies and nations involved combine their investigative skills, intelligence gathering and analysis, and military and law enforcement resources to identify, target, track, interdict and prosecute drug smugglers throughout the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean.

Already this Fiscal Year, which is just over half-way through, more than 130,000 pounds of cocaine have been seized on the high seas (70,000 in the Eastern Pacific and 60,000 in the Caribbean). These seizures have been accompanied by more than 150 arrests.

Fiscal Year 2004 (Oct. 1, 2003 - Sept. 30, 2004) was a record year for maritime drug seizures, with 242,000 pounds of cocaine kept off America's streets. Prior to that, the record for cocaine seized in a year was 138,000 pounds.