US Coast Guard Seizes $196 Million Worth of Cocaine in 2nd Sub Bust this Week
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On the Home Front:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2008 -- The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Midgett and a U.S. Navy maritime patrol aircraft teamed up to interdict a stateless, self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel Wednesday with seven tons of cocaine aboard approximately 400 miles south of the Mexico-Guatemala border.
The 60-foot, self-propelled, semi-submersible (SPSS) craft was detected by a U.S. Navy aircraft. The aircraft vectored Midgett to the location of the SPSS whereupon the Coast Guard quickly commenced a boarding of the stateless SPSS. The Coast Guard boarding team located 295 bales of cocaine, valued at more than $196 million, in a huge forward compartment. The SPSS became unstable and began to sink during the transfer of the bales of cocaine from the SPSS to Midgett. The condition of the vessel made it unsafe to tow and Midgett's crew sank the vessel as a hazard to navigation.
Wednesday's interdiction follows a daring nighttime boarding and seizure of another SPSS on Saturday in which the Coast Guard boarding team, embarked aboard the USS McInerney, surprised an SPSS with four suspected smugglers using the cover of darkness to take positive control of the SPSS. The smugglers attempted to throw the boarding team into the sea by reversing the SPSS engines suddenly, and attempted to scuttle the vessel, but the boarding team compelled the smugglers to comply with orders to close the scuttling valves. Seven tons of cocaine were seized from the SPSS and the USS McInerney took the SPSS in tow.
"I'm proud to tell you that over the past five days, Pacific Area Coast Guard units, with the help of our U.S. Navy and interagency partners, seized more than 14 tons of cocaine with a street value of more than $383 million from two self-propelled, semi-submersible vessels in the Eastern Pacific Ocean," said Adm. Thad Allen, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. "The interoperability between Coast Guard and Navy assets has never bee more effective. Our Department of Defense and interagency partners are a critical force multiplier making such interdictions possible."
(Story from a U.S. Coast Guard news release.)
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posted by Steven Moyer at 3:15 PM
3 Comments:
Why is the US Coast Guard in Guatamala?
For the same reasons they were in Georgia (not the one with Atlanta and Savannah) Iraq and Southwest Asia ... it's part of their mission.
I guess you'd know that if you were actually infomred by anthing other than the mainstream media.
The thing that gets me is that most of these OCR's (Organized Crime Rings) are headed-up by some really intelligent persons. I often wonder- at the end of the day if they ever think that maybe they should have given that intelligence to clean/prosperous/legitimate corporations. Hey, with their multi-national status with their "counter-parts" they could even plant corporations in other countries. Me thinx most of those who are "in-charge" have a similar temperament to Bill Gates (when you study his temperament whether by M Briggs temperament analysis or someother you'd see what I mean). Anyway- this intelligence is first God Given, second- Him who loves them and gave Himself for them is calling them to a Higher calling... anyway---the Apostle Paul is not so arrogant as to make Christians sound "better" in and of themselves--rather he says, "You also once walked in this way too." So, I'm praying for them and exercise humility not judgement. Not here to judge the world.
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