The U.S. Coast Guard captured seven suspected smugglers transporting nearly 13,000 pounds of cocaine in the Pacific over the weekend and subsequently burned the boat until it sank, as part of Operation Pacific Viper.
“After intercepting one drug smuggling vessel, Stone sank the vessel in a live-fire exercise, removing it permanently from cartel use,” reads a Coast Guard Facebook post from Sept. 9.
The Coast Guard added that through Operation Pacific Viper, it is increasing its assets in the Eastern Pacific to disrupt the activities of transnational criminal organizations and prevent illegal drugs from reaching U.S. shores and American citizens.
“This is where defending America begins,” it noted.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Aug. 20 its Operation Pacific Viper, which the Coast Guard has implemented since June in the Eastern Pacific to stop drug cartels and criminal organizations, with more forceful actions against human trafficking along maritime routes.
“Since launching Pacific Viper, the Coast Guard has hunted down, interdicted, and boarded several illegal vessels, seizing thousands of pounds of drugs and detaining several smugglers,” the DHS said in a statement.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed that 80 percent of illicit drug seizures in the United States occur at sea.
“The U.S. Coast Guard is surging maritime interdictions in the Eastern Pacific to stop the cartels and criminal organizations—cutting off drugs and human smuggling before it reaches American shores,” Noem said in the statement.
Then, on Aug. 25, the Coast Guard reported a historic milestone by offloading at Port Everglades more than 76,140 pounds of illegal narcotics, valued at $473 million, seized in the waters of the Pacific and Caribbean Sea by maritime patrol, as part of the accomplishments of Operation Pacific Viper.
“This combined illegal narcotics offload prevented the maritime flow of approximately 23 million potential lethal doses from reaching the United States,” the Coast Guard said in an Aug. 25 statement.
Since mid-August, the United States has also deployed hundreds of naval patrol assets, along with search and rescue vessels and aircraft, to the southern Caribbean Sea to combat illegal drug trafficking.
“As a Member of the Armed Services [Committee], I can confirm this is the largest military presence we have ever had off the coast of Venezuela,” said U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) in an Aug. 25 post on X.
