Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the Trump administration is following through on its vow to make America safe again with an “unprecedented” seizure of half a billion dollars worth of cocaine in a recent Coast Guard deployment.
Noem announced in Fort Everglades, Florida, on Thursday that two Coast Guard cutters returning from deployments south of the U.S. southern border had intercepted $517 million worth of mostly cocaine from smuggling boats. The seizure made it the most amount of cocaine seized in a single, four-month deployment.
“Today is a historic day here at Port Everglades; over 22.5 tons, or 45,000 pounds of cocaine and 50 pounds of marijuana, are about, are valued at over a half a billion dollars, are going to be offloaded and taken out of circulation,” said Noem during a press conference staged in front of the ship.
“This is an unprecedented seizure of illicit drugs that is the result of 14 different introductions of drug smuggling vessels off the coasts of Mexico, Central, and South America by the crews of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stone and Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk,” Noem said.
Coast Guard cutters typically deploy for two-month stints and may seize several million to tens of millions of dollars worth of cocaine, making this latest haul by the Stone cutter significant. Cocaine is largely produced in Colombia and then trafficked by sea to Mexico and the United States.
Admiral Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, issued a strong warning to criminal organizations that produce and move drugs to the U.S.
“Under the president’s orders and our secretary’s direction, we are ensuring 100% operational control of the border,” said Lunday. “Our message to these cartels is this: We own the sea, not you. We will find you out there, and we will take you down before you reach our border.”
Drug overdose deaths involving cocaine have risen steadily over the past two decades. In 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 6,784 cocaine-related deaths.
In 2022, the last available year for data, deaths from cocaine rose to 27,569.
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The reason for the increase is due to illicit drugmakers mixing fentanyl into cocaine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“The number of deaths in combination with fentanyl has increased significantly since 2015 and is the main driver of cocaine-involved overdose deaths,” NIDA wrote in a statement.
