ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A U.S. Coast Guard crew offloaded $115 million worth of cocaine and marijuana Wednesday in St. Petersburg after returning home from a 38-day drug trafficking operation in the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The crew of the Cutter Resolute arrested five smugglers and brought them ashore to face federal charges, the Coast Guard said in a new release.
"During their patrol, the Resolute crew was strategically positioned to deny drug trafficking organizations access to maritime smuggling routes from Central and South America to prevent harmful narcotics from reaching the United States," the agency stated in the release.
Early in their patrol, the crew launched two boats to chase a vessel across nearly 46 miles of open ocean in six-foot seas, according to the Coast Guard. While the vessel had "significant horsepower," the crew was able to work with a Dutch aircraft to stop the boat, forcing the smugglers to throw away the drugs.
Two weeks later, the crew of the Resolute found a "suspicious" sailboat in the central Caribbean. After boarding the vessel, the crew's law enforcement boarding team reportedly found nearly 1,653 pounds of cocaine in a hidden area.
The drugs were seized and the smugglers were arrested, according to the Coast Guard.
"The crew’s efforts in both cases prevented an estimated $58.1 million worth of contraband from reaching the United States," officials stated.
After handling the two cases and several other missions, Resolute's crew was allowed to return home early to reunite with their families after Hurricane Helene. But, before Hurricane Milton made landfall, the agency said they went right back to work, providing search and rescue support to Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg after the storm.
