The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Escanaba cutter offloaded approximately 11,922 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $88.2m on August 5 at Port Everglades.
The seized contraband was the result of three separate interdictions in the eastern Pacific by the crew of the Escanaba, Pacific area tactical law enforcement team, and embarked Coast Guard helicopter interdiction tactical squadron aircrew.
Escanaba is a 270-foot famous-class medium endurance cutter homeported in Portsmouth, Virginia, under the U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic area command.
“The professionalism and cohesiveness of our team on board were the biggest contributors to our operational successes,” said petty officer third class Nadia Sands, an operations specialist in the cutter’s combat information center.
“This crew and command routinely embody the spirit of ‘One Team, One Dream’ and that spirit will continue to drive us to achieving our goals of protecting our borders and countering transnational criminal actors in the region.”
Last month, the U.S. Coast Guard announced that it has seized 242,244 pounds of cocaine since the start of President Trump’s administration on January 20th.
According to a release from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), this is a more than 100% increase over the cocaine seized under the previous administration over the same period in 2024.
Since just 1.2 grams of cocaine can be lethal, the Coast Guard has seized over 91 million potentially lethal doses, enough to kill the entire population of the states of California, Texas, and New York combined.
US Department of Homeland Security pointed out that this “milestone” comes after US president Donald Trump ordered a surge of Coast Guard resources to America’s maritime border on his first day in office, tripling the number of forces along the U.S. southern border and maritime approaches.
