The Coast Guard has seized more than 75,000 pounds of cocaine since early August, when it launched Operation Pacific Viper, a mission to crack down on narcotics coming from South America through the eastern Pacific Ocean, officials said Thursday.
Working alongside other government law enforcement agencies, the Coast Guard said it has taken about 60 suspected traffickers into custody during more than 80 maritime operations since Aug. 8.
The haul of contraband drugs averages about 1,800 pounds, nearly a ton, daily.
“The Coast Guard is surging additional assets – cutters, aircraft, and tactical teams – to interdict, seize, and disrupt transshipments of cocaine and other bulk illicit drugs,” Coast Guard officials said in a statement.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Jeffrey Novak, deputy commander of the Pacific area, said the latest milestone underscores their commitment to dismantling foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations that are engaged in narco-trafficking.
“The Coast Guard is bringing every authority and every capability at our disposal to disrupt cartels and criminal organizations, stop the flow of deadly drugs into the U.S., and secure U.S. borders and maritime approaches,” Rear Adm. Novak said in a statement.
U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force-South, based in Key West, Florida, detects and monitors suspected aerial and maritime transit of narcotics coming from Latin America.
The Coast Guard takes over when it becomes a law enforcement operation that ends with the interdiction and apprehension of smuggling suspects, officials said.
“Operation Pacific Viper continues the Coast Guard’s efforts to protect the homeland, counter narco-terroism, and disrupt foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations and cartels seeking to produce and traffic illicit drugs into the United States, Coast Guard officials said.
