Sea raids net cocaine worth billions

More than 37 tons of cocaine, with an estimated street value of €2bn were confiscated during five seizures at sea this autumn, the US Coastguard said.

The massive haul, seized between Aug. 21 and Sept. 26, was hauled off a Navy frigate yesterday.

The largest cocaine discovery in the history of the coastguard’s East Coast operations was made on September 17, when a detachment from the frigate the USS Curts found 15 tons of the drug on a fishing vessel about 300 miles west of the Galapagos Islands.

On September 23, a coastguard team aboard the USS Crommelin discovered more than 13 tons of cocaine aboard a fishing vessel 650 miles south west of the Galapagos.

August and September seizures brought the total cocaine confiscated by the coastguard during the financial year ending on Septemebr 30 to a record 240,519lbs, worth about €6.5bn.

Thirty-one people are facing prosecution in federal court in Tampa.