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U.S. Coast Guard Seizes Record Amount of Cocaine
In the biggest cocaine seizure in U.S. maritime history, the Coast Guard found 13 tons of the drug aboard a fishing boat that aroused suspicion because it had no working fishing equipment and few fish.
U.S. Attorney Gregory Vega put the drug's street value at about $500 million.
Authorities discovered the cocaine May 3 in a secret compartment on the Belize-flagged vessel after boarding the boat about 1,500 miles south of San Diego, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Cocaine seizures in the eastern Pacific Ocean have become increasingly common in recent years as smugglers seek to evade law enforcement in the Caribbean by taking advantage of the vastness of the Pacific.
The 152-foot ship caught the attention of a U.S. Navy ship on April 28 because it lacked operable fishing equipment, had few fish, and was outside normal fishing grounds, Coast Guard Capt. Bob Reininger said.
After searching the vessel for five days, a crew from a Coast Guard cutter found the cocaine under the hold.
The vessel was towed Sunday to San Diego.
The 10-man crew of the Svesda Maru ¡ª eight Ukrainians and two Russians ¡ª was arrested. They were to be arraigned Monday on drug conspiracy charges and could get life in prison if convicted.
Investigators believe that the 26,397 pounds of cocaine came from Colombia and that the crew intended to deliver it to Central America or Mexico, where it would be smuggled by land into the United States.
The previous record for a cocaine seizure at sea was 24,000 pounds from a ship called the Nataly I in 1995.
Since Oct. 1, the Coast Guard has seized 110,000 pounds of cocaine at sea, 80% of it in the eastern Pacific. That rivals the 120,000 pounds found in all of fiscal 2000, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Ray Riutta said.
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