The crew of the United States Coast Guard Cutter Resolute offloaded an estimated $115 million in cocaine and marijuana after completing a Caribbean Sea deployment.
The crew offloaded the approximately 9,690 pounds of cocaine and 5,490 pounds of marijuana on Wednesday upon returning to their homeport of St. Petersburg, Florida.
In addition to the contraband, Resolute’s crew previously transferred five suspected smugglers ashore to face federal prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to a Coast Guard release, the crew had deployed to the Caribbean Sea for 38 days to support Joint Interagency Task Force-South.
The interagency and international task force conducts counter-illicit trafficking and security cooperation operations in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The Coast Guard said early in their Caribbean Sea patrol, Resolute’s crew launched two small boat crews to pursue a go-fast vessel across 40 nautical miles of open ocean in six-foot seas.
According to the Coast Guard, despite the vessel’s significant horsepower, the Resolute crew worked with a Dutch aircraft to disrupt the go-fast boat, forcing the smugglers to jettison their illicit contraband.
Two weeks later, the Resolute crew located a suspicious sailing vessel traveling through the central Caribbean.
During the late-night boarding, Resolute’s law enforcement boarding team discovered nearly 1,653 pounds of cocaine in a hidden compartment.
The boarding team seized the contraband and detained the suspected smugglers onboard.
As part of the international partnerships, the Resolute crew also worked with the Royal Netherlands Navy ship HNLMS Holland and their embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 102 from Tactical Law Enforcement Team Pacific to transfer custody of seized contraband and suspected smugglers for future prosecution in the United States.
Holland’s crew transferred more than 5,000 pounds of marijuana and 4,409 pounds of cocaine to Resolute.
