FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Officials from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Navy are in Fort Lauderdale to offload 26.5 tons of cocaine -- worth an estimated $715 million -- seized in the waters off the Eastern Pacific.
Officials from the United States and Canada will discuss the drug interdictions during a news conference at Port Everglades on Thursday morning.
Good work @USCG @DHS partners @JTFatlantic on a 26.5 ton offload! pic.twitter.com/C6mcz4OJfw
— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) December 15, 2016
In a news release, the agencies said Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Naval crews participated in 27 separate drug smuggling vessel interdictions and five bale recovery operations off of Central and South America. The participating ships sailed with embarked Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment teams aboard.
The agency says increased U.S. and allied presence in known drug transit zones off Eastern Pacific and Caribbean Basin is part of its Western Hemisphere Strategy.
