12 tons of cocaine arrive at Port Everglades

The Coast Guard delivered more than 12 tons of seized cocaine to Port Everglades on Thursday. The 12.4 tons of cocaine, which the agency says is worth about $378 million, was intercepted in international waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean in October and November.

The drugs represent 12 seizures by three Coast Guard cutters — the Escanaba, the Thetis and the Spencer — and a Royal Canadian Navy ship on patrol with the Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment team.

The Escanaba, a 270-foot cutter based in Boston, sailed into Port Everglades early Thursday, its deck loaded with the cocaine to be offloaded and given to federal authorities for disposal. The ship’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Michael Turdo, said Escanaba crew members conducted five interdiction operations that were responsible for about half of all the cocaine that was seized.

“The crew’s contributions over the past two months directly support our government’s efforts to dismantle smuggling routes used by transnational criminal organizations and interdict drugs at sea bound for the United States,” he said.

Massive offloads of seized drugs, typically cocaine and marijuana, at Coast Guard facilities in South Florida and elsewhere have become somewhat regular in recent years as many U.S. agencies and global partners have focused patrols on smuggling transit routes in the eastern Pacific.