It’s a boatload of cocaine

Coast Guard and Canadian Navy offload 26 tons of drug at Port Everglades

The Coast Guard joined with officials from the Royal Canadian Navy on Thursday to highlight what the agency called “one of the largest drug offloads” in its history.

The operation at Port Everglades filled most of the flight deck of the 418-foot Coast Guard cutter Hamilton with more than three dozen pallets stacked with cocaine, seized during 27 vessel interdictions and five drug-bale recovery operations in the eastern Pacific.

“Today we’ll be offloading 53,000 pounds. That’s equivalent to about 24,000 kilograms of cocaine ... with an estimated wholesale value of $715 million. That’s probably equivalent to 2-plus billion [dollars] on the streets of America,” said Vice Adm. Karl Schultz, com-

mander of the U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area.

Officials did not release details about the information that led to the seizures, which took place over about three months, and involved six Coast Guard cutters and two Royal Canadian Navy ships.

During the operations along Central and South America, about 100 smuggling suspects were turned over to federal authorities for possible prosecution, officials said. Some of the prosecutions will take place in South Florida.

“These international criminals peddle in human misery,” said Capt. Scott Clendenin, commanding officer of the Hamilton, which was on its maiden deployment and was responsible for 11 of the more than two dozen seizures.

“The 53,000 pounds of seized cocaine coming off our decks today is the product of partnerships and the collaboration of U.S. Southern Command; the departments of Homeland Security, Defense, State, and Justice; and the Royal Canadian Navy,” Clendenin said.

The U.S., Canada and other countries are targeting smugglers who use the eastern Pacific to bring drugs north for distribution.

The amount of cocaine on the deck of the Hamilton was so massive that a crane was used to lower the drugladen pallets to the dock.

PHOTOS BY JOE CAVARETTA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Coast Guard members prepare to offload 26 tons of cocaine Thursday from the flight deck of the cutter Hamilton at Port Everglades.

JOE CAVARETTA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER U.S. Coast Guard drug-interdiction personnel try to keep their identities concealed as they guard seized cocaine.