Coast Guard offloads $338 million worth of seized cocaine in San Diego

SAN DIEGO – Two months. Eight stops. About 20,000 pounds of smuggled cocaine, worth roughly $338 million.

On Monday, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter crew docked in San Diego and offloaded the hefty hauls that cutter crews intercepted from boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean carrying bundles of the illegal drug.

Coast Guard officials said that in eight different incidents between mid-november and mid-january, four of its cutter crews stopped and boarded eight boats in known drug routes at sea and seized nearly 20,000 pounds of cocaine. The incidents occurred off the west coasts of Mexico, Central and South America.

The work was in support of Campaign Martillo, which the Coast Guard said in a news release announcing the hauls is a regional initiative that targets trafficking “that threatens security and prosperity at the national, regional and international levels.”