Featured Image Credit: Capt. Aaron Moshier
On September 6th, service members from US Coast Guard Cutter Waesche, out of Alameda, California, seized cocaine from a custom-built SPSS (Self-Propelling Semi-Submersible) craft off the coast of Central America.
“The suspected smugglers apparently attempted to scuttle the sub as water filled the smuggling vessel to just below the helm,” Lt. Donnie Brzuska reported. Two of the Waesche crew members then began to drain the vessel of the water, allowing them to retrieve more than 5,600 pounds of cocaine from the boat.
5,600 pounds! That could have been over $73 million in profits!
This event is part of an even more stifling set of numbers: within the 2016 Fiscal Year (October 1st 2015 to September 30th 2016), the US Coast Guard Cutters had 6 seizures very much like this one, and they confiscated over 416,600 pounds of cocaine, which would be worth over $5.6 BILLION!
That’s a lot of money, and a lot of drugs that could have made their way onto land. We’re thankful that the Coast Guard is vigilant in keeping drug smugglers off land and leaving on land safe in the process.
Watch the video of the Cutter Waesche crew dewatering the vessel below, courtesy of USCG News.