The Unit­ed States Coast Guard says it has seized co­caine worth more than US$186 mil­lion dur­ing op­er­a­tions in the Caribbean Sea and the At­lantic Ocean.

In a state­ment, the Coast Guard said that more than 14,153 pounds of co­caine had been of­floaded here last Fri­day fol­low­ing nine sep­a­rate in­ter­dic­tions in the in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ters. It did not spec­i­fy the pe­ri­od when these in­ter­dic­tions were car­ried out.

“The con­tra­band of­floaded …rep­re­sents the pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­tise and ded­i­ca­tion of US de­fence and law en­force­ment agen­cies work­ing to­geth­er to com­bat the flow of il­lic­it drugs through the Caribbean re­gion in­to the Unit­ed States,” said Lieu­tenant Pe­ter Hutchi­son, du­ty en­force­ment of­fi­cer at Coast Guard Dis­trict Sev­en.

“This team­work is im­per­a­tive to the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, in­ter­cep­tion and seizure of ves­sels en­gaged in il­lic­it traf­fick­ing and a tes­ta­ment to the hard work of these crews,” he added.

Along with the il­lic­it nar­cotics, the US Coast Guard said 12 sus­pect­ed smug­glers were ap­pre­hend­ed and face pros­e­cu­tion in fed­er­al courts by the US De­part­ment of Jus­tice.

The US Coast Guard said the Joint In­ter­a­gency Task Force South in Key West, Flori­da con­ducts the de­tec­tion and mon­i­tor­ing of aer­i­al and mar­itime tran­sit of il­le­gal drugs.

“Once in­ter­dic­tion be­comes im­mi­nent, the law en­force­ment phase of the op­er­a­tion be­gins, and con­trol of the op­er­a­tion shifts to the US Coast Guard through­out the in­ter­dic­tion and ap­pre­hen­sion,” said the US Coast Guard, adding that in­ter­dic­tions in the Caribbean Sea are per­formed by its crew un­der the au­thor­i­ty and con­trol of the Coast Guard’s Sev­enth Dis­trict, head­quar­tered in Mi­a­mi.

MI­A­MI, Jun, 18, CMC

CMC/nk/nhb/2023