Coast Guard Bust Nets 21 Tons Of Cocaine

DEA: Seizure Off Coast Of Panama Cost Mexican Drug Lords $300 Million

(CBS/AP)  A Coast Guard boarding of a suspicious vessel off the coast of Panama led to a record seizure of cocaine — nearly 43,000 pounds of the drug hidden in two containers onboard the vessel Gatun.

The Gatun was initially spotted by a Coast Guard patrol aircraft about 20 miles southwest of Isla de Coiba, Panama, on Saturday. After obtaining permission from the government of Panama, a Coast Guard boarding team searched the Gatun on Sunday and discovered the drug cache.

Sources say the colossal shipment of cocaine was loaded aboard the vessel in Colombia and heading for Mexico, where a cartel was waiting to funnel the drugs into the United States, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.

The 14 crewmembers, Panamanian and Mexican nationals, were arrested and are being transferred to Tampa, Fla., and Panama, where they will be prosecuted.

The seizure is part of an ongoing multi-agency operation known as "Panama Express," according to a Homeland Security official who requested anonymity because the official announcement had not yet been made.

"This record-breaking seizure denied the Mexican drug lords $300 million in drug revenue," said DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy. "This lost drug revenue, combined with last week's unrelated record-breaking $205 million cash seizure by the Government of Mexico working in partnership with DEA, dealt Mexican traffickers a one-two punch: they're down more than half a billion dollars in blood money in just 48 hours."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, in a statement, commended the government of Panama for its cooperation.

"Because of the combined efforts of these federal and international partners, millions of dollars in illegal drugs did not make their way into our homeland and criminal groups were not able to reap the huge profits," he added.

This latest victory in the war on drugs is good news, adds CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts, but seizing more than 20 tons of cocaine barely scratches the surface of America's drug problem.

An estimated 20 million Americans still use illegal drugs. Three million of them use cocaine.

Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard, said his agency's "hardworking crews overcame significant challenges in maintaining a 40-year-old deepwater cutter to prosecute this mission far from U.S. shores."

In recent months, the Coast Guard has acknowledged that it has had to contend with design flaws in some of its ships.

The seizure comes at a time the U.S. military has cutback its drug interdiction patrols and surveillance in the Caribbean to concentrate on war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, adds Orr.

[rickj030455-2009]

Ok lets think about this for a minute...why would powerfull cartels just put the drugs in plain view ? The United States is always gettin
duped by some country and sadly it was the colombians. While we were there they were runnin smaller boats in and out of the usa so much for homeland security...

[bellal-2009]

Well said, Master Mcdzz.

[uscgwife]

Say what you want to about about Bush, but give the Coast Guard some credit. What they did is incredible. Those men and women are brave and honorable and they almost never get recongnition for the great things that they do every day. Go Get'm USCGC Sherman!!!!

[afay3]

I am disgusted with the bias shown by Katie Couric on this drug bust story. She said something to the effect that it's "One for the good guys."

Does she not have any idea how disastrous is the drug war? That this bust will deprive the US market of tons and tons of product? And that this will do nothing but push up the street price? And more users will have to rob innocent people?

Does she not have any clue what happened with Prohibition in the 1920's? And the disaster that policy became?

I am always amazed at the ignorance of our major media "stars."

Art Fay

coastiesrock wrote:

"I am trying to understand why some of you people out there posting have to degrade this important bust for the Coast Guard? You are taking away something that some of them will remember the rest of there lives but you have to degrade it by your comments on the Pres. and other officials.. These men and woman are out there defending you and me.. I say support them. Yes I am proud to be a Coast Guard Supporter..And yes I have a family member on board one of the cutters.. I hope some of you remember that next time you are out drowning or if your boat takes on water who is going to rescue you..The Coast Guard.."

I don't think anyone is degrading the Coast Guard (who do a wonderful job) for stopping 21 tonnes of Cocaine from reaching the streets.

Having said that, GW Bush has used cocaine and the CIA have previously (and quite possibly continue to) been involved in the transportation of cocaine (at the very least).

If you have a problem facing up to the truth, then so be it, but we do have the right to speak up (as do you).

[bildooreilly]

Mystery of 5.5 Ton Coke Flight Deepens
The CIA, 'Cocaine One' & Putting Planes in Suspense
May 2 2006--Venice,FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker

In the two weeks since an American DC9 airliner was busted by Mexican troops at a small airport in the Yucatan, carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine packed neatly into 128 identical black suitcases (somewhat hilariously marked 'private') the search for the true owners of the plane has produced these startling new developments...

The busted DC9, dubbed "Cocaine One" in an earlier story, had an identical twin, a second airliner painted with the same distinctive blue-and-white-with-gold-trim of official U.S. aircraft, the MadCowMorningNews can reveal exclusively, and under the control of the same company. Or Company.


SkyWay Aircraft was the only tangible asset of SkyWay Communications Holding, a firm whose existence served as nothing more than a meager excuse to run a penny stock fraud scam, successfully relieving investors of over $40 million dollars in only three years.

During 2003 and 2004, both DC9's controlled by the firm (N-numbers N900SA & N120NE) boasted an official-looking Seal beside the door bearing the familiar image of an American eagle clutching olive branches and arrows in its talons, around which were emblazoned the words "SKYWAY AIRCRAFT, PROTECTION OF AMERICA'S SKIES."

[coastiesrock]

I am trying to understand why some of you people out there posting have to degrade this important bust for the Coast Guard? You are taking away something that some of them will remember the rest of there lives but you have to degrade it by your comments on the Pres. and other officials.. These men and woman are out there defending you and me.. I say support them. Yes I am proud to be a Coast Guard Supporter..And yes I have a family member on board one of the cutters.. I hope some of you remember that next time you are out drowning or if your boat takes on water who is going to rescue you..The Coast Guard..

21 tonnes of Cocaine?

I bet GW Bush is sitting back right now thinking about his old College days.

[grazinggoat]

gee----we sure hope that wasn't some error and they busted a cia shipment by mistake!

Posted by egresor

-I thought my joke was a good one! yours is blatanlty hilarious.

[egresor]

gee----we sure hope that wasn't some error and they busted a cia shipment by mistake!

[Philscbx]

Another site designed in India.

Go look at the first page and see how the idiot makes a person to think they have to push the Publish button repeatedly.

Nice Job CBS, just when I thought there was something connected
with intelligence. Maybe Hasbro has a tough project.

[bildooreilly]

Levine, Michael, DEEP COVER, New York, Dell Publishing, 1990 DEA undercover operative penetrates the leadership of the Bolivian cocaine cartel, Panamanian money-launderers and Mexican military middle-men. But it is all for nought, as interference from the CIA and Attorney General Meese, along with DEA infighting, sabotage the investigation.

McCoy, Alfred, THE POLITICS OF HEROIN, Brooklyn, NY, Lawrence Hill Books, 1991 Excellent history about CIA complicity in the global drug trade, from the French Connection, to Southeast Asia and onward into the Afghanistan and Latin America. A must read.

Parry, Robert, FOOLING AMERICA, New York, William Morrow and Company, 1992 Several sections discuss Contra cocaine smuggling in this book which describes how Washington insiders twist the truth and manufacture the Conventional Wisdom.

Persico, Joseph E., CASEY, New York, Viking Penguin, 1990, pg..478-481 Biography on former CIA director William Casey briefly explores the relationships between the CIA and drug traffickers, as well as the protection of narco-CIA assets.

Reed, Terry and Cummings, John, COMPROMISED, New York, S.P.I. Books, 1994 The definitive book on Mena, Reed's first person account of his CIA service on behalf of the Contras opens eyes as to the relationships between the CIA, drug trafficking and recent occupants of the White House. A second edition is in bookstores, however not from bankrupt S.P.I. Books. [I highly recommend this book]

[bildooreilly]

SUGGESTED BOOKS

Castillo, Celerino III and Harmon, Dave, POWDERBURNS, Oakville, Ont., Mosaic Press, 1994 Head of DEA in El Salvador discovered that the Contras were smuggling cocaine into the United States. Castillo's superiors reacted to his reports by burying them. This book is too controversial for an American publisher to print.

Cockburn, Leslie, OUT OF CONTROL, New York, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987 Early account of the of the Reagan Administration's secret war in Nicaragua, the illegal arms pipeline and the Contra drug connection.

Johnson, Haynes, SLEEPWALKING THROUGH HISTORY, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 1991. Pg. 261-274, 292-293 History of the Reagan years traces the relationships of William Casey, Manuel Noriega and the Medellin cocaine cartel.

Levine, Michael, THE BIG WHITE LIE, New York, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1993 DEA undercover investigator learns that the biggest deterrent to stopping the drug epidemic is the Central Intelligence Agency.

[figuy30]

thanks katie couric for your excellent coverage on the drug bust story. honest, hardworking, americans deserve to be informed of what's going on around them. we have put up with incompetence and inefficiency on every hand in meting out justice to people out to destroy the very fabric of america. from corrupt politicians, to corrupt lawyers and judges. law enforcement officers are incumbered in every way in an effort to prevent them from doing their duty. when all americans demand positive action against the criminals, not our own law enforcement officers, and tell our elected representatives that we're through with having our freedom, safety, homes, and families destroyed, and stand by our irrefutable rights as u.s. citizens and taxpayers, then, and only then, will we finally see justice.

[bildooreilly]

"I really take great exception to the fact that 1,000 kilos came in, funded by US taxpayer money."

DEA official Anabelle Grimm, during a 1993 interview on a CBS-TV "60 Minutes" segment entitled "The CIA's Cocaine." The 1991 CIA drug-smuggling event Ms. Grimm described was later found to be much larger. A Florida grand jury and the Wall Street Journal reported it to involve as much as 22 tons.

[bildooreilly]

"I have put thousands of Americans away for tens of thousands of years for less evidence for conspiracy with less evidence than is available against Ollie North and CIA people. . . . I personally was involved in a deep-cover case that went to the top of the drug world in three countries. The CIA killed it."
Former DEA Agent Michael Levine
CNBC-TV, October 8, 1996

-------------
"The connections piled up quickly. Contra planes flew north to the U.S., loaded with cocaine, then returned laden with cash. All under the protective umbrella of the United States Government. My informants were perfectly placed: one worked with the Contra pilots at their base, while another moved easily among the Salvadoran military officials who protected the resupply operation. They fed me the names of Contra pilots. Again and again, those names showed up in the DEA database as documented drug traffickers.

"When I pursued the case, my superiors quietly and firmly advised me to move on to other investigations."
Former DEA Agent Celerino Castillo
Powder Burns, 1992

[bildooreilly]

Sclaires, the bulk of hard illegal drugs (cocaine and heroin) being sold on the streets of the united states is brought in by our very own CIA that's Central Intelligence Agency if you're truly clueless.. they only bust their competition and low level dealers and users. Go read the book by former DEA agent called "Powderburns", go look into the Iran Contra drug smuggling operation, go look into Bill Clinton running billions of dollars worth of Pappy Bushs cocaine through Mena Arkansas when he was governor and the death of Barry Seal who was flying their cocaine around, gunned down the day before he was going to testify against them. It's amazing how stupid and uninformed some of you people are.

[figuy30]

thanks for a job well done coast guard, admiral thad allen, dea,homeland security, and all others responsible for the courageous drug busts and for protecting america. i don't think drug smugglers should be given any lawyers at u.s. taxpayer expense to defend them and try to get them off the hook. maybe a good death sentence mandated into law for drug smugglers might help slow down drug traffic. also stiffer sentences for anyone caught with illegal drugs, with no probation, rehab, or community service handed out by wimpy judges will curb demand on the u.s. side. when we finally get serious about illegal drug use in america. then it will stop almost overnight.

[sclaires]

If only some of the people who have posted negative comments about the seizure of the 21 tons of cocaine realized just what illegal drugs do to the human body then they would be all for the seizure. And, we must not forget about the babies who are harmed in utero by drugs. Those poor babies are the ones who will suffer for the rest of their lives for what their mothers did while pregnant. They are the ones who will cost the tax payers for long term care. No, the more illegal drugs that are seized the better. That saves United States money from going to other countries to support the drug lords. As long as illegal drugs are seized and destroyed, there are less people who will have assess to them. I support the United States Coast Guard for the good work they did in stopping the vessel and seizing the cocaine. It is a dangerous job for anyone and we should give all the support to the one who do it.

[afay3]

I am disgusted with the bias shown by Katie Couric on this drug bust story. She said something to the effect that it's "One for the good guys."

Does she not have any idea how disastrous is the drug war? That this bust will deprive the US market of tons and tons of product? And that this will do nothing but push up the street price? And more users will have to rob innocent people?

Does she not have any clue what happened with Prohibition in the 1920's? And the disaster that policy became?

I am always amazed at the ignorance of our major media "stars."

Art Fay