Coast Guard In Record Drug Bust
A Coast Guard crew has seized more than 13 tons of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean, a law enforcement source said.
With a crew of 10 Russians and Ukranians, the ship was towed to San Diego.
"This is certainly the largest Coast Guard bust in maritime history," said spokeswoman Petty Officer Jamie Devitt-Chacon.
The cocaine was found on a fishing boat in the eastern Pacific, which was towed to San Diego on Sunday, said the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The U.S. Attorney's Office and other federal agencies were expected to announce details of the seizure Monday morning at a news conference in San Diego.
The drugs were found on the “Svesda Maru,” a Belize-flagged vessel. The crewmembers are expected to be arraigned early this week in U.S. District Court in San Diego on smuggling charges.
The vessel was first spotted about 1,500 miles south of San Diego by a U.S. Navy ship. The anti-drug team was suspicious because the craft did not have operable fishing equipment and was outside normal fishing grounds.
After more than five days of searching the vessel, the Coast Guard cutter Active relieved the Navy ship and continued trying to locate drugs. Authorities found the cocaine in a secret compartment underneath the fishing hold.
The ship, which carried a total of 26,800 pounds of cocaine, was believed to be headed toward Central America or Mexico where its illicit cargo could be smuggled over land into the United States.
The previous record for a cocaine seizure at sea was 24,000 pounds from a ship called the Nataly I in 1995.
Cocaine seizures in the eastern Pacific Ocean have become increasingly common in recent years as smugglers seek to evade a law enforcement in the Caribbean by taking advantage of the eastern Pacific's vast, open territory.
In February, the Coast Guard seized an 8.8-ton shipment of cocaine found on a rusty fishing boat off the coast of Mexico. The Belize-flagged Forever My Friend, had a crew of 10 aboard that included nine men from Central America and one from Ukraine. The cocaine in that seizure also was hidden in a secret compartment, buried under ice and fresh fish.
This seizure, however, is unusual both for its size and the fact that the crew consisted entirely of Russians and Ukrainians.
In 1999, the Coast Guard seized a record 55 tons of cocaine, which broke the previous high of 40.7 tons. Then in 2000, the agency captured 66 tons.
During a six-day period earlier this year, the Coast Guard seized 28,845 pounds of cocaine, about what it captured in all of 1996.
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