Charleston-based Coast Guard cutter offloads over 45,000 pounds of narcotics

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – A Charleston-based Coast Guard cutter offloaded about 45,600 of illegal narcotics worth more than $517.5 million in Florida on Thursday.

Cutter Stone’s offload was the result of 14 interdiction missions that happened in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. In addition to the seized contraband, 35 suspected smugglers were transferred to the US to face federal charges, Coast Guard officials said.

“You heard it said before that the Coast Guard’s national security cutters are game changers in the counter-drug mission, but they still require a crew of men and women willing to serve on or over the sea and place themselves in harm’s way,” said Capt. Jonathan Carter, commanding officer of Stone. “I’m incredibly proud of our crew’s performance and their efforts to combat narco-terrorism this deployment. In one exceptional case, the crew interdicted four go-fast vessels in 15 minutes, seizing nearly 11,000 pounds of cocaine that will never be mixed with deadly fentanyl to threaten American lives here at home.”

Cutter Stone was assisted on the missions by Cutter Mohawk, US Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) Jacksonville, US Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team-Pacific (PAC-TACLET), Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATFS) and the Eleventh Coast Guard District.

The cutter, homeported in Charleston, is one of four 418-foot Legend class national security cutters commanded by the US Coast Guard Atlantic Area. At the Law Enforcement Academy in Charleston, boarding officers train to conduct interdiction missions.

“The Coast Guard continues increased operations to interdict, seize, and disrupt transshipments of cocaine and other bulk illicit drugs by sea. These drugs fuel and enable cartels and transnational criminal organizations to produce and traffic illegal fentanyl, threatening the United States,” officials said.

Each interdiction began federal criminal investigations. The drugs captured are linked to cartels designated as foreign terrorist organizations, including Sinaloa and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generaciόn.