The Coast Guard Cutter Alert crew conducted a drug offload in San Diego, October 16, 2019. The crew offloaded more than 6,800 pounds of cocaine, worth an estimated $92 million, seized in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard B-Roll footage by Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandon Giles)
Transcript
Today we are offloading 68 hundred pounds of cocaine that was seized, in the Eastern Pacific Ocean by three Coast Guard Cutters, working for the Joint Inter Agency Task Force out of Key West, Florida. The approximate value of the cocaine that was seized is 92 million dollars. This is keeping drugs off the streets, away from the American citizens. Furthermore, by interdicting it at sea we prevent it from going through Central America, which helps to stabilize those nations, which further helps to increase our border security. An impact to the Coast Guard’s presence in the Eastern Pacific is we are able to stop the flow of narcotics before they come close to the American shores. By interdicting the smugglers at sea, it generally makes for a safer evolution. We have less resistance from the smugglers out at sea. We are able to get more concentrated quantities of drugs, and we stop that flow of narcotics through Central America and Mexico, which helps to further stabilize those countries. Ultimately leads to improved border security for the U.S. I’m incredibly proud of our crew. We, this summer we had a 45 percent turnover, so about half the crew is brand new working together. So, the strides of learning and teamwork that had happened to enable us to have these seizures gives me a huge amount of pride working with these professionals.