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Coast Guard reels in $115M worth of drugs, catches 5 suspected smugglers during Caribbean Sea deployment

By FOX 13 News Staff
Published  October 23, 2024 10:46pm EDT
St. Petersburg
FOX 13 News

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - After nearly 40 days in the Caribbean Sea, a U.S. Coast Guard crew returned to St. Petersburg on Wednesday and offloaded about $115 million worth of drugs. 

The U.S. Coast Guard said its Cutter Resolute crew offloaded about 9,690 pounds of cocaine and 5,490 pounds of marijuana when they returned to their homeport in St. Pete. 

They also previously transferred five suspected smugglers to face federal prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice, officials said. 

READ: What is pink cocaine? Drug reportedly connected to Liam Payne, Diddy Combs

The team was deployed to the Caribbean Sea for 38 days to help the Joint Interagency Task Force-South, which conducts counter-illicit trafficking and security operations in the Caribbean and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 

Courtesy: U.S. Coast Guard.

During the deployment, USCG's Resolute crew helped stop drug trafficking organizations on smuggling routes from Central and South America, working to prevent harmful drugs from getting into the U.S. 

Officials said the crew also assisted with an overloaded vessel full of more than 180 migrants off of Haiti's coast. They worked to safely take the Haitian migrants to a different Coast Guard crew, allowing them to provide shelter and care to dozens of men, women and children who were on board. 

During the deployment, crew members were allowed to return home early to reunite with family in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. However, Coast Guard officials said they went back shortly after returning home to avoid Hurricane Milton's landfall on Florida's west coast. 

The crew provided offshore search and rescue in the wake of Hurricane Milton along with other Coast Guard crews, officials said. 

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