It’s a never-ending battle that plays out every day on the open ocean. Members of the U.S. military risk their lives to arrest drug smugglers and confiscate their cargo, and traffickers try to find ways around the dragnet.
This time, the Coast Guard came out on top.
It teamed up with the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy for two big busts in the Caribbean Sea.
According to a release from the Coast Guard, a Royal Navy ship detected two fast boats about 74 nautical miles south of St. Croix, and a Coast Guard helicopter team arrested seven men.
They seized 42 bales of suspected narcotics.
Then, a marine patrol plane detected another fast boat off the coast of the Dominican Republic, and a cutter’s boarding team arrested two men on board.
They confiscated 13 bales of drugs.
“These efforts, underpinned by our unwavering resolve to stop drug smuggling vessels at sea, greatly contribute to safeguarding our citizens in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and protecting our shared interests of a safer and more secure Caribbean,” W. Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico said.
In total, the international partners seized 3,086 pounds of cocaine with a wholesale value of $46 million.
According to MSN, that would have been worth about $140 million on the streets.
The drugs were offloaded on Tuesday in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The accused smugglers will be prosecuted in federal court.
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