US Coast Guard Seizes 25 Tons of Illegal Drugs from South American Cartels
The US Department of Justice announced the seizure of $510 million worth of illegal drugs found on cargo vessels sent toward the US from South America. The weight of the intercepted drugs amounted to 25 tons.
After a search lasting 11 days, the US Coast Guard seized the ships, which held mostly “pure cocaine, uncut, and 3,800 pounds of marijuana,” according to US Attorney General Pam Bondi. The cargo ships were located near the coast of Peru, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands.
In a Florida address on Wednesday with the US Coast Guard, AG Bondi remarked:
“What the [Coast Guard] did saved countless American lives. This cocaine would have been distributed throughout our country and perhaps throughout our world.”
Bondi announced the seizures led to indictments of 11 people involved in drug trafficking which will proceed in the state of Florida. Thirty people were apprehended during the seizures.
According to the Associated Press, “Bondi said investigators have linked two cartels – Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa – to the shipments, and described the seizures as a “major blow” to their financial operations.”
Both of these cartels are among the eight recently designated foreign terrorist organizations by the US Department of State.
“The drugs that you have seen today will no longer destroy lives: they will help us lock up criminals,” Bondi declared to the press.
Accompanying Bondi was FBI Director Kash Patel, who exclaimed the US’s goal of dilapidating the cartels:
“There is no lethal force on planet Earth that is responsible for an overdoes death of an American citizen every seven minutes, moreso than these federal terrorist organizations. We are going to dismantle the ‘next-man-up’ theory that has been breeding in these Mexican cartels for generations. No more.”
