The US Coast Guard recently offloaded more than $72 million in cocaine in Miami Beach and Port Everglades, Florida, that crews aboard its cutters and a US Navy Littoral Combat Ship seized after intercepting five drug smuggling boats during patrols of both the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Oceans.
On Monday, April 27, 2026, Coast Guardsmen assigned to the Portsmouth, Virginia-based Cutter Escanaba offloaded approximately 7,050 pounds of cocaine worth more than $53 million at Port Everglades, Florida. The contraband resulted from the interdictions of cartel drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
On Thursday, April 23, 2026, the crew of the St. Petersburg, Florida-based Coast Guard Cutter Resolute brought 2,570 pounds of cocaine ashore worth more than $19.3 million and transferred six suspected drug smugglers to federal authorities at Base Miami Beach.
The seized drugs resulted from three drug boats intercepted in the Caribbean Sea by the crews of the Newport, Rhode Island-based Cutter Tahoma and the Naval Station Mayport, Florida-based USS Billings.
Meanwhile, the US military is also continuing to attack and sink other cartel smuggling boats encountered during anti-drug patrols.
On Friday, April 24, 2026, two suspected smugglers were killed while piloting a small boat in a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific after the US Southern Command determined they were engaged in narcotics smuggling there.
Should the US continue to use deadly force against suspected drug smugglers at sea?
Share your thoughts in the comments to this story!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
Mr. Beavers, You asked if we should continue to fire on the fast moving cocaine boats? Is there any better target practice for the gunners and Navy pilots? And it's free!
Paul