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7.5 tons of cocaine offloaded in Miami
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
A national counterdrug task force based in Key West led an interdiction in which the Coast Guard confiscated about 7.5 tons of cocaine, worth $180 million, from a submarine-type vessel off the coast of Honduras last month.
"We exercised command, control and tactical employment of the U.S. assets involved in the locating, tracking and supporting the apprehension of the (vessel) recently disrupted in the Caribbean," Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-S) commander Coast Guard Rear Adm. Charles Michel wrote to The Citizen in an email Tuesday.
JIATF-S, based in Truman Annex, is made up of the Navy, Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Agency and Customs and Border Protection, among other groups, and is tasked with catching drug and human smugglers. It was the agency's first interdiction of a Western Caribbean self-propelled semi-submersible.
The five-member crew of the so-called "narco-sub" faces federal charges of possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute. Authorities offloaded the 15,000 pounds of drugs, which weigh roughly the same as an elephant, Tuesday at Base Support Unit in Miami.
A Coast Guard C-130 airplane spotted the semi-submersible July 13 and dispatched a Customs and Border Protection plane for a closer look. A Coast Guard cutter found the self-propelled sub off Gracias a Dios, a province near the Nicaraguan border, according to a press release.
The sub crew, reportedly from Columbia and Honduras, sunk the vessel before they were taken into custody. The sunken sub was found July 26 by a Coast Guard cutter equipped with side sonar.
Drug cartels often build such drug-smuggling subs deep in the jungle before loading them with drugs and sending them north, where the cargo is broken into smaller shipments and smuggled across the Mexican-U.S. border, according to a Coast Guard press release.
The subs, which glide just below the surface of the water, typically are less than 100 feet long, have four or five crew members and can carry as much as 10 tons of cargo as far as 5,000 miles.
They are designed to sink rapidly when detected, and they account for nearly a third of all cocaine transported in the region.
JIATF-S is based in Truman Annex near Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. Since its 1989 inception, the agency has confiscated $200 billion in drugs, including 2,500 tons of cocaine and 3.5 tons of marijuana, as well as arrested 4,000 traffickers and seized 1,000 vessels, Air Force Gen. and U.S. Southern Cmdr. Douglas Fraser said in June.
Fraser in March told the House Armed Services Committee that JIATF seized 142 tons of cocaine and 3,419 pounds of marijuana, collectively worth about $2.8 billion, and arrested 309 people last year alone.
JIATF efforts in 2007, 2008 and 2009 led to the seizure of more than 400 tons of cocaine, heroin and marijuana worth more than $8 billion, and the arrest of 578 people, according to a Department of Defense press release.
The Seneca, a 270-foot Coast Guard cutter based in Boston, found the sub while it was under sail. The Oak, a cutter based in Charleston, S.C., found the sub after the crew sunk it.
alinhardt@keysnews.com
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
A national counterdrug task force based in Key West led an interdiction in which the Coast Guard confiscated about 7.5 tons of cocaine, worth $180 million, from a submarine-type vessel off the coast of Honduras last month.
"We exercised command, control and tactical employment of the U.S. assets involved in the locating, tracking and supporting the apprehension of the (vessel) recently disrupted in the Caribbean," Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-S) commander Coast Guard Rear Adm. Charles Michel wrote to The Citizen in an email Tuesday.
JIATF-S, based in Truman Annex, is made up of the Navy, Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Agency and Customs and Border Protection, among other groups, and is tasked with catching drug and human smugglers. It was the agency's first interdiction of a Western Caribbean self-propelled semi-submersible.
The five-member crew of the so-called "narco-sub" faces federal charges of possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute. Authorities offloaded the 15,000 pounds of drugs, which weigh roughly the same as an elephant, Tuesday at Base Support Unit in Miami.
A Coast Guard C-130 airplane spotted the semi-submersible July 13 and dispatched a Customs and Border Protection plane for a closer look. A Coast Guard cutter found the self-propelled sub off Gracias a Dios, a province near the Nicaraguan border, according to a press release.
The sub crew, reportedly from Columbia and Honduras, sunk the vessel before they were taken into custody. The sunken sub was found July 26 by a Coast Guard cutter equipped with side sonar.
Drug cartels often build such drug-smuggling subs deep in the jungle before loading them with drugs and sending them north, where the cargo is broken into smaller shipments and smuggled across the Mexican-U.S. border, according to a Coast Guard press release.
The subs, which glide just below the surface of the water, typically are less than 100 feet long, have four or five crew members and can carry as much as 10 tons of cargo as far as 5,000 miles.
They are designed to sink rapidly when detected, and they account for nearly a third of all cocaine transported in the region.
JIATF-S is based in Truman Annex near Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. Since its 1989 inception, the agency has confiscated $200 billion in drugs, including 2,500 tons of cocaine and 3.5 tons of marijuana, as well as arrested 4,000 traffickers and seized 1,000 vessels, Air Force Gen. and U.S. Southern Cmdr. Douglas Fraser said in June.
Fraser in March told the House Armed Services Committee that JIATF seized 142 tons of cocaine and 3,419 pounds of marijuana, collectively worth about $2.8 billion, and arrested 309 people last year alone.
JIATF efforts in 2007, 2008 and 2009 led to the seizure of more than 400 tons of cocaine, heroin and marijuana worth more than $8 billion, and the arrest of 578 people, according to a Department of Defense press release.
The Seneca, a 270-foot Coast Guard cutter based in Boston, found the sub while it was under sail. The Oak, a cutter based in Charleston, S.C., found the sub after the crew sunk it.
alinhardt@keysnews.com
