Coast Guard Seizes $28M Cocaine, 3.8K Pounds

0:00It's April 18th, from your city to your ears. This is California News today, powered by AI. US Coast Guard crew from Cutter Tampa, offloaded 3,825 pounds of cocaine at Miami Beach base on Thursday. That haul was worth more than $28,700,000 and came from two busts in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. This bust happened under Operation Pacific Viper. Over the past 74 days, the crew grabbed nearly $45 million worth of illegal drugs through tough teamwork with partners. Commanding officer Joshua D. Pietro called their work impressive, especially qualifying new pilots and safety officers while nailing these ops. Officials say that cocaine could kill over 1.4 million Americans and 80% of US bound drug stops occur out at sea. The operation kicked off during the Trump administration to hit smuggling routes from Central and South America hard. Back in February alone, they seized 200,000 pounds, and since last August, it's over 215,000 pounds total with one, 160 suspects caught.

1:08Now under Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen, the Coast Guard plans to keep deploying heavy force against cartels choking off the drug flow. Before it hits our shores.