According to the USCG, over 48,400 pounds of drugs worth more than $509 million was offloaded
Over 48,400 pounds of cocaine and some marijuana worth more than $509 million seized by the U.S. Coast Guard were offloaded at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday.
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WATCH HERECoast Guard officials, joined by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, held a press conference at Port Everglades to discuss the seizure of illicit narcotics.
The U.S. Cutter James has been out on a four-month deployment as it operated out in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
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The crew used surveillance systems, drones, aircraft and ships to interdict several vessels and seize the drugs.
During the press conference, officials said they believed two cartel groups were heavily tied to the shipments.
Bondi said 11 separate prosecutions will take place as a result of these interdictions and they will be held accountable and prosecuted in the Middle District of Florida.
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She also said the operation was a textbook example of the DOJ supporting the fight against violent crime.
"The drugs that you have seen today will no longer destroy lives," Bondi said. "They will help us lock up the criminals."
"They are going to get all the drugs off the streets, off the markets and as Attorney General Bondi said, we are going to lock them up, they are no longer going to be free to roam," Patel said.
The Coast Guard, along with the Department of Justice and the FBI, want everyone to know that the mission of preventing drugs from getting on our streets is working and interdictions like this are saving countless American lives.
Bondi previously visited Florida last Friday to announce the arrests of nine convicted and alleged MS-13 gang members in homicide cases that had gone cold in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
