Coast Guard seizes cocaine worth $186 million in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean

The U.S. Coast Guard has offloaded cocaine in Miami worth an estimated $186 million that was seized in international waters of the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

The Coast Guard said in a news release that more than 14,000 pounds of cocaine was intercepted recently in nine separate cases. Twelve suspected drug smugglers were arrested on a variety of charges.

The drugs were brought ashore in Miami on Friday.

Coast Guard helicopters and ships as well as Customs and Border Protection air and sea assets took part in the seizures and arrests.

“This teamwork is imperative to the identification, interception and seizure of vessels engaged in illicit trafficking and a testament to the hard work of these crews,” said Coast Guard Lt. Peter Hutchison.

The Coast Guard did not say how the drugs were intercepted but traffickers sometimes use semis-submersible vessels known as “narco subs” to transport cocaine to Central America and the U.S. for distribution.

Cocaine that is abandoned by traffickers periodically washes up on the shores of Florida. In April, packages of cocaine worth more than $100,000 washed up on several Florida beaches.

Earlier this year, nearly 150 pounds of packaged cocaine washed up on Big Pine Key. In 2019, bricks of cocaine were discovered on two beaches after Hurricane Dorian lashed the Florida coast.