The Coast Guard Seized 1,500 Pounds Of Cocaine, Unloaded It In Florida Today

BlutarskyTFM12 years ago

If you’ve been known to enjoy the booger sugar from time to time, you might want to sit down before you read this. Maybe pour yourself a drink or something to relax the nerves a bit. This one’s going to hit close to home for you.

During a recent patrol of the Caribbean, crew members of a United States Coast Guard cutter received intelligence reporting the presence of a suspicious 35-foot ship operating south of the Dominican Republic. The cutter, USCGC Venturous, changed her heading and moved toward the reported location of the suspicious ship.

When the crew of the suspicious ship saw the approaching Venturous, they began tossing things overboard. Good call. That doesn’t seem unusual at all. Just casually throwing shit off the side of the ship. An everyday occurrence at sea, I’m sure.

The crew aboard the Venturous were able to secure 28 of the items tossed overboard, which turned out to be bales that tested positive for cocaine. Today, the crew are unloading the drugs they recovered, and they’re unloading a lot of them. To be specific, at port in St. Petersburg, Florida, roughly 1,500 pounds of cocaine are being brought to shore. Let that sink in for a minute. 1,500 pounds of blow.

The cocaine is estimated to have a wholesale value of around $23 million dollars. If split into smaller quantities, who knows how much money criminals could have made with that.

Say what you will about using the stuff, but personally, I’m glad it’s in the hands of law enforcement rather than the hands of thugs on our streets.

[via The Tampa Tribune]